| MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Leaders of a growing
pro-Kremlin political bloc have
proposed changing Russia's electoral rules by dramatically raising
the
threshold of votes in parliamentary elections required for political
parties
to win seats in the Duma, Russia's lower house.
The move would effectively create a two-party system and divide
the chamber
between the United Russia bloc and the opposition Communists at
the expense
of small liberal parties.
The startling proposal, which calls for the threshold to be lifted
from 5
percent of the vote to 12.5 percent, received the support of the
Communists,
who stand to gain from the arrangement, and by ultranationalist
Vladimir
Zhirinovsky, whose party frequently supports Kremlin initiatives.
The potential losers of any such change, the liberal Union of
Rightist
Forces and the Yabloko party of Grigory Yavlinsky, slammed the
proposal as
discriminatory and undemocratic. Both SPS and Yabloko currently
hold seats
in the Duma, but received less than 10 percent of the vote in
the last
parliamentary elections and are not expected to do much better
next year.
The proposal comes as Russian politicians are drafting plans
for next year's
parliamentary elections, which are to be held in December 2003.
United Russia officials have been eager to receive the formal
backing of
President Vladimir Putin, and have taken to heart recent initiatives
by
analysts and political think tanks with links to the Kremlin to
encourage
the eventual formation of two political blocs, a left-of-center
party and a
right-of-center party -- a party of power and a party of opposition
-- which
would dominate the political landscape in Russia while smaller
parties are
forced to merge with one of the blocs or are pushed out.
Certain moves to limit the number of parties have already been
taken, with
new regulations passed or in the works setting the minimum number
of
regional branches and registered party members across Russia's
89 regions,
so as to undermine the presence of smaller parties with a strong
power base
in only a few regions.
As liberal politicians condemned the initiative, the Kremlin
moved to calm
passions Tuesday, suggesting a less radical option.
Vladimir Surkov, the deputy chief of the Kremlin administration,
was quoted
saying the Kremlin would favor the threshold being raised to 7
percent.
But even such a jump would threaten Yabloko, a consistent critic
of the war
in Chechnya and some of President Vladimir Putin's reforms. Yabloko
may
receive less than 7 percent in next year's polls, failing to win
seats in
the Duma for the first time if the rules are changed.
Other, smaller political parties would never be able to achieve
parliamentary representation outside a bloc such as United Russia
as they
are expected to win less than the required minimum number of votes.
The proposed change would affect half the seats in the 450-seat
State Duma,
which are allocated according to party lists depending on the
number of
votes each party received.
The remaining seats are decided in single-mandate elections.
With just over a year to go before the next parliamentary elections,
both
SPS leader Boris Nemtsov and Yabloko's Yavlinsky expressed outrage
with the
mere idea that the rules can be changed.
The Kremlin's Surkov addressed these fears, saying he believed
the change
should be implemented within the next few years, in time for the
2007
parliamentary elections.
However, United Russia wants to assure itself a clear majority
of seats in
the next Duma, and with its lobbyists increasingly active, it
remains to be
seen who will have the last word on electoral reform.
See also:
State
Duma elections 2003
|
