Translated material
Revolution on the side
Non-parliamentary parties are being squeezed out of regional politics
The Yabloko party again found itself thrown out of the election race. The federal leadership of the party decided to boycott the presidential elections , and left the issue of participation in the presidential elections to the legislative assemblies of 11 regions, scheduled for March 2, to the regional branches. Regional Yabloko members put forward their lists only in two regions - the Altai Territory and the Republic of Ingushetia, but in both places they were denied registration. According to political scientists, the authorities in the regions are beginning, in the image and likeness of the federal authorities, to clear the political field of non-parliamentary opposition parties.In both cases with Yabloko, regional election commissions found an unacceptable percentage of defects in the signatures of voters collected in support of the party. In the Altai Territory, the Agrarian Party will also not be able to take part in the elections, despite the fact that its party list is headed by the current speaker of the regional legislative assembly and former Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexander Nazarchuk, and “Civil Power”, which is considered a Kremlin quasi-liberal project. It is obvious that the norms for collecting signatures for non-parliamentary parties are difficult to fulfill.
Altai Yabloko members issued a statement in which they called the upcoming elections a “farce.” They also complained about “a significant increase in the required number of signatures for registration of parties that did not make it into the State Duma of the Russian Federation, and the unsatisfactory work of the election commission of the Altai Territory.”
A separate dissatisfaction among party members was caused by the refusal to register the leader of the Altai regional branch of Yabloko, Alexander Goncharenko, who tried to run for deputy in a single-mandate constituency.
“These are deliberate actions, absolutely illegal, aimed at preventing the candidate from entering. All the signatures were carefully checked by us,” deputy chairman of the Yabloko party Sergei Mitrokhin told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. Altai Yabloko members intend to hold a protest, and Mr. Goncharenko plans to appeal the decision of the election commission in court. “The current practice of removing from elections candidates who collect signatures in their support actually introduces a property qualification for candidates, since another way to register them is to make a deposit of almost 100 thousand rubles,” the regional organization said in a statement.
Ingush Yabloko members reacted to the refusal to register more phlegmatically. The leader of the republican Yabloko, Daud Garakoev, did not challenge the refusal and only promised to “continue party activities in the republic.”
“Indeed, there is a tendency in which parliamentary parties and non-parliamentary parties find themselves in an unequal position in regional elections,” Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies Alexei Makarkin told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. --Parliamentary parties have greater protection against removal. I have the feeling that there is a desire to prevent non-parliamentary parties from participating in the elections at all. Because they can unite the dissatisfied, criticize local authorities, gain access to the media, and simply declare their existence. In essence, the precedent of Mikhail Kasyanov’s removal from the presidential elections is being repeated. Everyone understands that he had no chance, but he was able to at least appear on television. For non-parliamentary parties, even such a prospect now seems very vague. Regional leaders are guided by the precedents that are being created in the center.”
“Parties like Yabloko have never actively entered regional parliaments. There were regions where they fought, but only recently,” Mikhail Vinogradov, general director of the Center for Political Conjuncture, reminded a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - Secondly, for regional officials, of course, the participation of opposition parties in the elections causes some inconvenience. And thirdly, the crisis in which the parties themselves found themselves, their large number of debts and disagreements, deprives them of opportunities for a real fight in elections.”
Sergei Mitrokhin believes that not only non-parliamentary parties, but also opposition parties in principle suffer from oppression by local authorities: “Communists are also not allowed in many places. Opposition is not allowed. Sometimes it’s a rage of local clerks, sometimes it’s a command from above, in different ways.”