Today speaking at the round table devoted to registration of
candidates for elections to local self-government bodies that
will take place on October 11, 2009, Sergei Mitrokhin, leader
of the YABLOKO party, has said that procedure of collection
of signatures turned into a nightmare for the candidates.
“It is more or less bearable for the parties, as they have
administrative staff [who can help in the organisation of
collection of signatures], however, the task becomes simply
back-breaking for single-mandate candidates,” Sergei Mitrokhin
noted in his speech.
YABLOKO’s leader proposed that collection of signatures for
parties should be abolished, as there are only seven parties
left and the number of signatures required for single-mandate
candidates should be lowered from 1% to 0.1%. “As it is possible
[for one person] to gather 500 signatures in Moscow,” Mitrokhin
said.
In addition Mitrokhin proposed to introduce an amendment
restricting possibilities for the use of “locomotives” (Ed.
a situation when a well-known figure is proposed as a candidate
from some party, however, he/she resigns right after the party
is elected leaving the voters in bewilderment to see unknown
people topping the party list). He also handed to Nikolai
Gontchar, Chairman of the For the Fair Elections committee,
a YABLOKO’s draft amendment to the Federal Law “On Elections”
stipulating that candidates occupying state posts in the Russian
Federation or its subjects must voluntary resign from their
posts within five days from the date of their registration
as candidates.
Nikolai Gontchar noted that this presented an urgent problem
and he would once again raise it in the State Duma.
“It’s high time to stop this deception of voters”, Mitrokhin
said. “And when most of the parties are engaged in deceiving
of the electorate this turns into a scandal”.
See also:
Moscow City
Duma Elections, 2009
Regional and
Municipal Elections 2009
| 