| MOSCOW - The Communist and Yabloko parties filed a lawsuit
with the
Supreme Court on Monday, claiming that last year's State Duma elections
were
distorted by biased campaign coverage, deception of voters and vote-rigging.
The two parties joined forces with Committee-Free Choice 2008, a group
including former liberal presidential candidate Irina Khakamada and
Moskovskiye Novosti editor Yevgeny Kiselyov, in an attempt to hold the
Central Elections Commission responsible for the alleged violations.
Western observers have called the elections, held Dec. 7, 2003,
unfair.
"If we win, it will no doubt be a colossal breakthrough in terms
of
legality and fairness in conducting elections," Communist Party lawyer
Vadim
Solovyov said by telephone Monday. "A victory would be a serious
deterrent
for the elections commission, mass media and government agencies that
falsify elections."
Central Elections Commission chairman Alexander Veshnyakov has denied
any major violations took place in the election campaign or vote count.
Commission officials on Monday declined to comment on the lawsuit.
In a statement Monday, Yabloko said the Central Elections Commission
had allowed state-controlled television channels to dedicate the lion's
share of campaign coverage to the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
United Russia received 860 minutes of state television airtime devoted
to the election, or 40 percent of the total given to the 23 parties
contesting the election, Yabloko said.
Solovyov said 97 percent of the coverage of United Russia was
positive.
Although the Communist Party, the closest rival to United Russia in
the elections, received 525 minutes, most of that coverage was negative,
Yabloko said.
Such campaign reporting contradicted two federal laws - On the Main
Guarantees of Electoral Rights, and On Elections of Deputies of the State
Duma - Solovyov said.
"Information materials must not violate the equality of candidates
and
electoral blocs," he quoted the law on electoral rights as saying.
The lawsuit also said that United Russia deceived voters by including
on its party list politicians such as Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, who later refused to become
deputies. That "runs counter to both the letter and the spirit"
of elections
legislation, Yabloko said.
The fact that the Duma seats Luzhkov and Shoigu refused weren't given
to other parties was also a violation of election law, Yabloko said.
The lawsuit also blamed the Central Elections Commission for failing
to organize a proper vote count. In a survey of 73 out of 225 district
election commissions nationwide, Yabloko and the Communists said the
commissions' records showed that 254,303 fewer ballots were cast for parties
than for single-mandate candidates. Traditionally, more votes are cast
for
parties than for single-mandate candidates.
"It can be assumed that the difference was illegally used for
the
purpose of falsifying the election results," Yabloko said.
But Solovyov doubted the lawsuit would be successful. "I think
that
our chances for success are less than 1 percent."
If the complainants lose their case, they plan to file the lawsuit
with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, Solovyov
said.
See also:
the original at
www.sptimes.ru
State Duma elections 2003
| 