| YABLOKO's called on its supporters not to participate
in the presidential elections - such a decision was adopted at the Bureau
of the Federal Council of the party held on Friday. "This may be called
a boycott," said Deputy Head of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Ivanenko to Gazeta. At the same time YABLOKO recommends that its supporters
in several regions come to the polling stations on March 14 to participate
in regional and local elections. YABLOKO advises voters to take their bulletins
on the vote for the president back home with them. As a souvenir.
The December congress of YABLOKO decided not to propose a YABLOKO candidate
for presidential elections, commenting that it will not support Vladimir
Putin either. Only now has YABLOKO developed recommendations for its supporters
regarding presidential elections.
"YABLOKO considers it impossible to participate in another imitation
of democratic procedures," runs the statement of the Bureau of the
Federal Council of the party. "We proceed from the premise that people
see the growing lack of freedom in the country, lack of equality of participants
in pseudo-democratic elections, the bankruptcy and even comic nature of
the candidacies. We believe that in these circumstances non-participation
in the elections of the President of the RF represents a natural form
of protest for people with democratic views." Fifteen members of
the Bureau voted for this decision and two against. Viktor
Sheinis and one of the leaders of St.Petersburg branch of YABKLOKO
Mikhail Amosov stated their
support for the candidacy of Irina Khakamada. Amosov also stressed that
he would not call for a boycott of the presidential elections as this
could adversely affect the municipal elections in the city.
"We consider the elections to be a farce with all its consequences
for the candidates and the voters who still hold some illusions,"
said Sergei Ivanenko to Gazeta. "To insure a future for Russia, we
should demonstrate the civil position, and non-participation in the voting
is the most conspicuous position for the authorities. All the developments
represent only imitation of elections, and the recent statements by Irina
Khakamada and Sergei Glazyev on possibly quitting the presidential race
only confirm this point of view." Ivanenko also admitted that the
situation is not that simple in a number of regions as on March 14 regional
and municipal elections (where YABLOKO members run as candidates) will
take place there at the same time as the presidential elections. In these
regions YABLOKO recommends that its supporters come to the polling stations,
but not take the bulletin on presidential elections from the electoral
commissions. However, this trick may not work, as a voter can be offered
to sign for all the bulletins at once. In this case YABLOKO's leadership
proposes that its electorate simply take the bulletin for voting for the
president away as a "souvenir" to avoid scandals with the representatives
of the electoral commission; or vote "against all."
While discussing the position on the presidential elections, members
of the Bureau voted to admit 350 new members to the party. The new members
include, in particular, the Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta Dmitry Muratov,
diplomat and ex-ambassador of the RF to Italy and UK Anatoly Adamishin,
Director of the Centre for Strategic Research of the Russian Academy of
Sciences Andrei Piontkovsky and People's Artist of the USSR sculptor Nikolai
Nikogasyan. At present YABLOKO has over 80,000 members; three thousand
people joined the party after YABLOKO's failure at the parliamentary elections
of 2003.
See also:
Presidential elections
2004
Regional elections
2004
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