| Walking into the huge Manezh exhibition hall, where more
than two dozen political parties are holding a five-day fair to win over
the voters, it is clear how the parliamentary race is shaping up.
The space just to the left of the entrance is occupied by the Communists,
and to the right is their biggest rival, United Russia. The two parties
are leading public opinion polls, with neither having a clear advantage
in the Dec. 7 vote.
"You don't need a map to find a party," said Tatyana Orlova,
a 68-year-old pensioner who attended the fair's opening on Friday. "Where
you see a red stand with red flags, you know the Communists are there,
and when you see a big bear you are in United Russia's stand." The
bear is the symbol of the pro-Kremlin party.
The fair, whose slogan is "People and parties face to face,"
is the first of its kind and was planned by the Foundation for Free Elections,
an organization co-founded by the Central Election Commission.
Before the fair opened, leaders of the 27 parties taking part signed
an agreement pledging to behave ethically in the campaign. Yabloko is
the only major party to not take part in the fair or sign the pact.
At the opening ceremony, Central Election Commission chairman Alexander
Veshnyakov read a message from President Vladimir Putin praising the agreement.
"It is important that political parties with different approaches
and ideological programs are united by a common understanding of the importance
of observing the principles of law, democracy and morality in the elections,"
the message said.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, the head of the Panorama think tank, said the
fair was not a bad idea. "The only problem is that only a very few
parties have programs to show, but anyway the cleverer voters are given
a chance to think."
Like firms trying to advertise their goods, the parties used their imagination
to get visitors' attention. The Union of Right Forces invited visitors
to flip through the channels on a television set whose channels all showed
either United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov or Putin.
The Party of Life, headed by Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov,
asked visitors to fill out a form on their history of drug use, an usual
way to get across the message that the party would fight illegal drugs.
After filling out the form out of curiosity, 65-year-old pensioner Fyodor
Chusovikin, who was carrying two plastic bags full of political leaflets,
said he was confused by so many parties.
"Except the Communists, who have been offering the same old program
for years, it seems to me that the parties all have the same slogans,"
he said. Chusovikin said he needed to study the campaign literature before
deciding who to vote for.
Under the agreement signed Friday, the parties pledged to refrain from
using false information to discredit their opponents, from relying on
government connections to gain advantage in the campaign and from bribing
voters or resorting to dishonest practices.
Pribylovsky said he doubts anyone will take the agreement seriously.
It is based on generalities and does nothing to prevent the use of administrative
resources, which is one of the biggest problems in election campaigns,
he said.
If he were the leader of a party, Pribylovsky said he would not have
signed the agreement because the signatories pledged not to use compromising
material against their rivals.
"I agree that the parties should not use slander, but as far as
compromising material is concerned, a party has the right to inform the
voters if it knows that its opponent has done something wrong," he
said.
Sergei Mitrokhin, the
deputy head of Yabloko, said the liberal party decided not to take part
"in the imitation of honest elections."
"In this country we have an imitation of democracy, an imitation
of parliamentarianism, and an imitation of civil society. Now the Central
Election Committee has organized an imitation of honest elections as well.
This is pure PR and we don't want to take part in it," he said.
See also:
Elections to
the State Duma 2003
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