"United Russia" refused to participate in television tits

United Russia decided not to participate in television election debates with other political parties. This was stated by the head of the Central Electoral Staff, Yuri Volkov. According to him, the party leadership considers "inappropriate and dangerous to spend time on advertising and populist performances on the body."

“Our ideology and position on the most important issues are set out in the party’s program and have been voiced more than once,” said Yuri Volkov. “We are a party of real affairs and adhere to the strategy of direct handling people, as they say,“ face to face ”.

According to the law, half of the entire free broadcasts provided by parties and blocks for election campaigning are allocated to television. This stage starts on November 7, and the draw for the distribution of a free broadcast between parties and blocks will take place in the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on Tuesday, November 4. Each electoral association will receive 16 hours of free television on federal television channels, ITAR-TASS reports.

The debates will begin at 8.30 in the morning and end at 20.20 pm. On the 'First Channel', the debate will be shown from 8.30 to 9.00 and from 18.20 to 18.50, on the TV channel 'Russia' - from 19.00 to 20.00, and on the TVC channel - from 10.10 to 10.40 and from 19.50 to 20.20.

Each party and electoral block will eventually be able to hold sixteen debates. Their topics: economic policy, social policy, national security and the fight against crime, foreign policy, state construction, the formation of civil society.

According to this grid, the Communist Party, for example, will be at least five times to conduct debate with its main competitor - 'United Russia' (twice in 'Russia', once on 'first' and once on TVC).

Without waiting for a draw outlined on November 4 to the distribution of a free television radio broadcast for agitation, about 20 parties and blocks for several weeks were consulted for several weeks, trying to independently break into “triples” and “fours”, as well as formulate the most relevant and profitable topics for public discussion. The conciliation protocol on the schedule of the participation of political parties and electoral blocs in the television battles was approved on October 30 at a meeting of the Supervisory Board "Elections of 2003".

"Apple" regrets the decision of "United Russia"

The Yabloko party regrets the refusal of the United Russia party to participate in the pre -election television battles. “Sorry.“ Yabloko ”was hoping that“ United Russia ”would take part in the debate,” said Sergey Ivanenko, deputy chairman of the Echo of Moskvy on the air of the Echo of Moscow, commenting on the decision of United Russia.

“We and our voters have accumulated a lot of questions for this party,” he added. “We were ready in an open dispute to find out the positions of those parties that claim to determine the country's political line for the next four years.”

“Of course, United Russia does not leave television and has enough time for political agitation in various forms,” said Ivanenko. At the same time, the decision of United Russia is indicative, he remarked: "It is clear that the emphasis is not on the methods of public policy, but on administrative methods in the campaign."

“In addition, it is clear that the main political resource of this party is President Putin. As for other personnel decisions, today it seems that United Russia does not have other representatives who are able to lead political debates,” Ivanenko said.

Veshnyakov criticized the party’s refusal to participate in television battles

The chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation, Alexander Veshnyakov, expressed disapproval about the intention of the United Russia party to refuse to participate in television battles with representatives of other electoral parties and blocs.

"In my opinion, this is a wrong step: how can you participate in the political process, the process of forming power, preventing voters from finding out the position of certain parties in a civilized dispute, in the form of debate on the problems of Russian reality," said Veshnyakov.

Noting that "any party has the right to abandon free airtime," he at the same time called "not quite logical the step outlined by" United Russia. "

The head of the CEC of the Russian Federation suggested that we are talking about free air, allotted only for joint events, which should be at least 50 percent of the entire free time allocated by one or another batch, Interfax reports.

At the same time, Veshnyakov recommended waiting on November 4, when a draw for free airtime for all participants in the election campaign will take place in the Central Election Commission. “Then we will see who, when and how to use his free airtime,” he said.

Veshnyakov also noted that television and radio companies who will organize the broadcast of the debate of politicians are actively and responsibly preparing for these important events.