Russia’s four main political parties have been given the nod to run in December’s Duma race.
Analysts report that the 2011 elections are going more smoothly than it was four years ago when many parties failed to meet the registration schedule, causing widespread chaos.
As of now, all of the main Duma parties have been registered, among them United Russia, the Communists, the Liberal Democrats, and Fair Russia.
Among the non-Duma parties are Yabloko, Right Cause and the Patriots of Russia, all of which managed to gather the necessary 150,000 signatures to take part in the elections.
“We are devoting next week to checking the signature list provided by the non-parliamentary parties,” Nina Kulyasova, from the Central Election Committee, told RT. “The parties represented in the Duma have all been approved for elections.”
Although so far the election process has been proceeding quite smoothly, some major parties have already been involved in scandal.
Various media reports have suggested that the United Russia party has instructed regional governors to deliver – at all costs – 65 per cent of the votes in the forthcoming elections. The Kremlin has denied the accusations, pointing out that the OSCE will closely monitor the elections.
The Liberal Democratic Party was outraged by the media reports and has insisted that an investigation be carried out into the issue.