Regional and municipal elections will take place in Russia
on October 14, 2012. The YABLOKO party nominated its candidates
for the elections in 22 Russian regions.
In the Krasnodar Territory, the list of
candidates to run at elections to the Legislative Assembly
represents a coalition of opposition forces in the region.
Well-known representatives from different democratic parties
and movements, environmentalists, human rights activists,
independent journalists and public figures join together under
the banner "Yabloko - United Democrats of the Krasnodar
Territory". The joint list of candidates includes: Andrei
Rudomakha, Chairman of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO and
coordinator of the North Caucasus Environmental Watch, Yegeny
Vitishko, Chair of the Tuapse branch of YABLOKO, Suren Ghazaryan,
member of the North Caucasus Environmental Watch, Lenid Malyavin,
ex Chair of the Krasnodar branch of the party RPR-PARNAS party,
and Dmitry Pupynin, Chairman of the Krasnodar branch of the
Democratic Choice of Russia movement. The party list totals
to 36 candidates.
The programme "Kuban Demands Changes!" targets
at peaceful constitutional transformations of the Krasnodar
Territory into a modern, law abiding, democratic and socially
oriented region of the Russian Federation, where the authorities
would serve the interests of citizens and ensure an environmentally
friendly and economically sustainable development of the region.
For many years the activists represented in the list have
been defending human rights, protecting the environment and
fighting against corruption in the government, including demands
for resignation of Governor Alexander Tkachyov.
YABLOKOs list was supported by professors from the Kuban
State University Mikhail Savva and Alexander Zhdanov, Yegenia
Chirikova, leader of the Khimki Forest movement and Chairs
of democratic parties Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Milov.
In Udmurtia, the YABLOKO party nominated
a list of candidates for the State Council of the Republic.
The list is topped by Mikhail Nazarov, Chairman of the regional
branch of YABLOKO and leader of the trade union of entrepreneurs
"Unity", Sophia Rusova journalist and publisher
of the "Izhevsk Observer" and Andrei Nekrasov, head
of the anti-corruption fund "New Udmurtia".
The Udmurtian branch YABLOKO has consistently called for
the resignation of the President of the Republic Alexander
Volkov. According to the YABLOKO, the region demonstrates
a criminal merger of the power and oligarchy, and this should
be changed. In the course of the campaign the candidates had
to face continuous pressure from the authorities, media censorship,
and even threats of murder. The candidates state that the
government in Udmurtia is afraid to admit the only real oppositional
force into the parliament.
In the Moscow region YABLOKO participates
in the municipal elections in Kurovskiy, Serebryanniye Prudi,
Uspensky and Elektrogorsk. Also YABLOKO candidates run in
the elections of five city heads of cities and local elections.
Candidate for the post of head of Sergiev Posad is Sergei
Kryzhov, who is acting deputy of the local Council, Yugeny
Gamlitsky runs for Mytishchi head, Alexander Shipov runs for
Obukhovo head, Alexander Krivosheev runs in Voskresensk and
Kirill Lysenko in Pushkino. Alexander Gunko, deputy head of
the Moscow Region YABLOKO runs in the by-election for deputies
to the Moscow Region parliament in Egorievsky district (precinct
4).
The Moscow Region branch of YABLOKO has developed a programme
for the development of the region. The programme aims to solve
the problems of transportation in the region, the gap in social
welfare as compared to Moscow, poor quality of housing and
utilities services and high cost of housing, corruption in
all the levels of governing, etc. The Moscow Region YABLOKO
proposes to develop and strengthen municipal governing in
the region, as local self-governing which will be controlled
and promoted by the citizens may help to redirect funding
so that to address urgent tasks of different cities and districts
of the region.
Kaliningrad by the Baltic Sea will hold
mayoral elections. YABLOKOs candidate for the post of Mayor
is Alexandra Yakovleva. Yakovleva intends to present her own
concept of development of Kaliningrad targeted at reduction
of the city dependence from the federal government.
The Kozmodemyansk town in the Kaliningrad region will hold
by-elections to the local municipality and YABLOKOs candidate
is Mikhail Ivanov, who has been professionally involved in
waste recycling and is going to improve the environmental
situation in the town suffering from pollution from a large
solid waste landfill.
In the Altai region YABLOKO participates
in the elections to Barnaul and Rubtsovsk city parliaments.
Alexander Gontcharenko, leader of the Altai YABLOKO, doctor
and human rights activist, is one of YABLOKOs candidates
running for the Barnaul City Duma. Barnaul Electoral Commission
has registered all eight YABLOKO candidates, but Rubtsovsk
Electoral Commission began registration of YABLOKOs candidates
only after the ruling by Altai Regional Court. Opposition
candidates in the Altai region signed an agreement on joint
control over voting so that to counteract election fraud.
YABLOKO nominated 11 candidates to run in the elections to
the Yaroslavl City Council. However, eight
candidates were not registered by the electoral commission.
Vladimir Zubkov, leader of the Yaroslavl YABLOKO and one of
the candidates the City Duma, believes that this is part of
a large-scale fraud planned by the authorities so that not
to let the opposition into the parliament.
In the Sverdlovsk region YABLOKO nominated
candidates to run for the head of six districts: Sergey Kirillov,
Sergei Seryapin, Anatoly Pagodaev , Irina Skachkova, Michael
Tokarev and Alexander Ogorodov.
Also in the Sverdlovsk region YABLOKO candidates will run
for four local parliaments. YABLOKO pays special attention
to the election campaign in the Pervouralsk city where RPR-PARNAS
tried to cancel YABLOKOs registration in court. According
to YABLOKO, such pressure is connected with the fact that
YABLOKOs list includes all real opposition activists and
acting opposition MPs from the City Duma.
In the Tver region YABLOKOs candidates
will run for three local parliaments in Tver, Udomlya and
Vishny Volochok. YABLOKO nominated a joint list of candidates,
which included representatives of regional branches of the
environmental movement, the Democratic Choice and RPR-PARNAS
parties, Mikhail Prokhorovs Civil Platform, different NGOs
and public organisations to run for the Tver City Duma. The
list is topped by Anton Stamplevsky, Chairman of the Tver
YABLOKO and director of the Tver City Foundation for Support
of Small Businesses; Margarita Khanskaya, public activist
and expert on housing and utilities sector. The Tver YABLOKO
is against the emergence of an industrial zone on the border
of the Moscow and the Tver region, which would create environmental
threats in the region. The Tver YABLOKO developed a programme
"A Way to Freedom in Tver" addressing the major
problems of the region.
In the elections to the Sakhalin Region Duma
YABLOKO presented a complex programme of regional development.
The Sakhalin branch of YABLOKO supports the construction of
a modern refinery, gasification of private houses in the outskirts
of the city in the next five years, implementation of the
'Houses-Land-Roads YABLOKOs programme in the Sakhalin region
and improvements in the social sector. Special attention is
paid to the region's ecology: the revision of sanitary zones
and resettlement of residents living in difficult conditions.
The party list at the parliamentary elections in Sakhalin
is topped by Sergei Bykh, head of the regional YABLOKO branch,
Mikhail Arendarenko, acting deputy of the the City Assembly
of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Oleg Sharovetsky, head of the psychiatric
hospital.
In the Penza region YABLOKO put forward
a list of 22 candidates to run for the Legislative Assembly.
The list is topped by Sergey Oleynik, president of the ANTI-AIDS
public fund for support of healthcare and education; Sergey
Illiev, deputy of the local council and Yuri Voblikov, prominent
human rights activist.
The Irkutsk branch of YABLOKO will compete
not only for seats in the City Council of Angarsk, but also
Valery Kurochkin will run for the post of mayor of the city.
YABLOKO activists have been fighting for stopping of a paper
mill polluting Lake Baikal and for the rights of the citizens
living in the region.
In Lipetsk, YABLOKO will run for the City
Duma. YABLOKOs candidates are Yelena Guryeva, Alexander Krivoruchko
and Andrei Shalev. The main objectives for YABLOKO in the
region are creation of transparency of the municipal government
for the public, removing of administrative barriers and pressure
on small and medium enterprises, and development of a good
business climate in the region.
YABLOKO also nominated candidates for elections to the city
parliaments in Chelyabinsk, Tomsk, the Bogoroditsk
city in the Tula region, Vladivostok, the Apastovo region
of Tatarstan, urban settlements Ostov and two rural settlements
in the Pskov region, and two districts in the Republic of
Bashkortostan. YABLOKOs candidates also run for
the heads the Omsk District in the Omsk region
and two rural settlements in the Kirov region. YABLOKOs lists
are registered in the elections to the City Dumas of Cherkessk
and Karachayevsk.
In the elections to the Saratov Regional Duma
YABLOKO nominated five candidates in single-seat precincts.
However, YABLOKO withdrew its regional list of candidates
for the Saratov Regional Duma in favour of RPR-PARNAS.
"Considering the methods election campaigns are run
in many regions, we expect large-scale fraud. This is especially
true of Udmurtia and the Krasnodar Territory. Since these
are large regions, it is difficult to expect that we will
be able to send observers to all the polling stations. We
vest more hope in the city elections, where it is easier to
control the voting process, " said YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, YABLOKO has
registered 600 candidates for elections of
October 14, 2012.
See also:
Regional
and Local Elections 2012
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