| SPS has come up with a new procedure for electing party chairman At the end of last week, at a meeting of the Federal Political Council, the Union of Right Forces party adopted a new procedure for electing a leader. Now the document will be sent to the regional branches of the party for possible correction.
In accordance with the procedure, the idea of which belongs to a member of the party’s political council, former deputy Boris Nadezhdin, the leader of the right will be elected on the basis of all-Russian primaries, which will take place in a few months. In this case, each of the applicants must be nominated by regional branches of the Union of Right Forces - in numbers from five to ten. And last but not least, in order to become a full-fledged candidate, the candidate for the leadership of the right will have to pay 2 million rubles, which will be registered as donations to the party from a private individual. In case of defeat, the money will not be returned to the candidate. The candidates' funds, on the one hand, will cover the costs of the primaries, and on the other hand, will become evidence of the viability of the possible leader.
So far, three members of the Union of Right Forces have announced their desire to compete for the leadership post - the author of the idea, Boris Nadezhdin, former senator Ivan Starikov and political scientist Alexei Kara-Murza.
The technology for conducting primaries was proposed by Grigory Tomchin. In his opinion, not only members of the Union of Right Forces, but also ordinary supporters of the party should participate in the voting. To do this, voting places must be installed in all major cities and regional centers of the country. However, the “right” decided to allocate not one day, but two weeks for the elections. The organization of the primaries itself, according to SPS estimates, will cost no more than $100 thousand, the rest of the money will go to advertising.
The Political Council also considered an alternative election scheme proposed by Ivan Starikov, who believes that the election of the leader should take place on a small scale in the regional organizations of the party.
The idea of holding primaries was first raised at the SPS congress two months ago, on June 26, when the right tried unsuccessfully to elect a leader following the departure of all co-chairs Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada and Anatoly Chubais in January after the defeat in the Duma elections.
The popular election of the chairman may bring some difficulties to the right due to the fact that, according to a summer poll by VTsIOM, the majority of the population sees Vladimir Putin as the leader of the liberals. The president gained 22% of the votes polled and left far behind the top five on the list of united democrats under the auspices of the “Committee 2008” - Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada, Grigory Yavlinsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Garry Kasparov scored from 1 to 7% of the votes.
However, the SPS people are unlikely to give up the idea of asking the people. As Leonid Gozman, a member of the party’s political council, said at the last congress, “It’s time for the Union of Right Forces to become not a party of business, but a party of the working masses.”
The congress will finally approve the leader of the Union of Right Forces. Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA |
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