| MOSCOW, December 4 (ITAR-TASS) -- Russia's right-wing
parties, the SPS and
Yabloko and the Communist Party have agreed to jointly monitor progress
in
the voting when Russia on Sunday, December 7 will be electing the lower
house of parliament.
SPS faction member Boris Nadezhdin has said the three parties have
already distributed among themselves practically all of the 94,000 polling
stations.
The Communists, Yabloko and SPS had agreed to coordinate action late
Thursday night. The idea was proposed by the Communists who warned about
the
risk of massive election rigging.
SPS and Yabloko have pointed out that this is not a political agreement,
but a purely technical arrangement and a response to unprecedented
administrative pressure locally. "Each of the three parties would
be able to monitor no more than half of
the polling stations. Together we shall be able to keep an eye on 99 percent
of the stations,"
Nadezhdin said.
The CEC chief Alexander Veshnyakov has welcomed the initiative by the
three parties. He believes that extra observers at polling stations would
not be redundant. In a long-distance conference earlier this week Veshnyakov
strongly criticized local officials for trying to put pressure on the
electoral commissions.
"Such splitters may undermine voter confidence in the electoral
system,
which would be impermissible," he said.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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