Remove the competitor

The Russian Party of Pensioners crossed the road to "United Russia" the Russian Party of Pensioners lost the right to participate in the elections in three regions: in Belgorod, Moscow and Chelyabinsk. The election commission refuses to register lists of candidates for deputies from the RPP, as the procedure for their nomination is violated.

Recall that the RPP was founded in 1997. It was led by entrepreneur Sergei Atroshenko. In the elections to the State Duma in 2003, the RPP Bloc and the Party of Social Justice won 3% of votes. Last year, "pensioners" elected the State Duma deputy Valery Martung by their leader. However, on September 26, 2005, the Tagansky court of Moscow at the suit of Atroshenko recognized the election of the guards of the party as illegal. Last week, the Moscow City Court upheld this decision in force.

Last Thursday, as the newspaper already reported, Chelyabinsk Oblazbirk refused to assure the list of the Russian Party of Pensioners in the elections in the regional parliament, which will be held on December 25. The basis for the refusal was the decision of the Moscow City Court, according to which the martung legally lost the powers of the party leader.

These powers, in particular, are expressed in the fact that the party leader approves the list of candidates for deputies nominated by the regional party conference. The regional election commission, knowing that the guards in court ceased to be a leader, refuse to register the lists of candidates for deputies certified by him. Yesterday, the Chelyabinsk Oblagzbirk did not approve the lists of candidates from the RPP a second time. For the same reasons, the party was removed from the elections to the Duma of Moscow and the Belgorod Region.

Experts surveyed by the newspaper claim that the position of the Moscow City Warrics and the Chelyabinsk Emergency Committee is justified. "If the cassation instance of the Moscow City Court did not recognize Valery Gartung as the leader of the RPP, then he did not have the authority to approve the list of candidates," says Elena Dubrovina, a member of the CEC of the Russian Federation. However, the chairman of the CEC Alexander Veshnyakov stood up for the "pensioners" yesterday. "This will be the subject of a serious proceedings, especially on the court line," he said about the confrontation between the RPP and the regional election commission. At the same time, he noted that in the Chelyabinsk region there is enough time to deal with the list of candidates, since the elections to the parliament are scheduled for December 25. "As for Moscow, here the deadline for registration of the electoral lists expires at 18.00 on October 19," he said.

However, the Party of Pensioners and without a hint of the CEC intends to appeal the decision of the Moscow City Court in the Supreme Court, and the decision of the Oblazbarkom in the regional court. This was announced yesterday "Gazeta" was stated in the press service of the RPP. The leadership of the party regarding the decision of the party as a desire of the authorities to remove from the elections of real competitors of United Russia. For example, on October 9, in the elections to the Duma of Tomsk, the RPP was ahead of the United Russia by 1.5%, having won 19.5% of the votes.

10/17/2005 / Rustem Falyakhov, the material was published in the newspaper No. 197 dated 10/18/2005.