Zyuganov To Watch Elections
Published: November 16, 2011 (Issue # 1683)
The Communist Party intends to take control over upcoming parliamentary elections by placing their representatives at polling stations and installing video cameras throughout the Leningrad Oblast to ensure the close monitoring of ballot boxes and vote counting, the party’s leader Gennady Zyuganov said at a press conference in St. Petersburg last week.
“Everyone understands that the elections are falsified,” said Svyatoslav Sokol, a State Duma deputy for the Communist Party. “The question as to whether Russia will have international authority or fully discredit itself is of primal and urgent importance for our state and society,” he said.
“Illegitimate power leads to anarchy: Libya and Egypt put together,” said Zyuganov.
The Communist Party is also opposed to a legislative draft proposed by the United Russia Party that would allow citizens to vote by post. “We have information that every election constituency is supposed to gather a certain number of votes [for United Russia] in such a way,” Sokol said.
Zyuganov said that the Communist Party was going to fight against the passing of the law, even if it had to organize mass street protests to do so. Sokol said that Russia had never had fair elections, and wouldn’t have in the foreseeable future.
According to Communist Party members, the party has a good chance of winning elections in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast. Sokol voiced a figure of 51 percent of votes in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, and Regina Illarionova, secretary of the regional committee, said that according to their estimate, the Communist Party should win in the Leningrad Oblast.
Film director and member of the St. Petersburg Communist Party’s city committee Vladimir Bortko said that it was not possible to predict the outcome of the elections. “Only one thing is clear: We want to win,” he said.
“Our party already has higher figures than United Russia in many regions of Russia. In this sense, there is some kind of pressure [from United Russia] on us. But we won’t let them steal our votes,” Zyuganov said.
Communist Party members said that the party’s pre-election program concentrated on the country’s recovery from the economic crisis, reform in the housing and utility sector and development of all production branches, as well as supporting young people and introducing a graduated tax for the rich. Alexei Vorontsov, a member of the party, said that the party aimed to resurrect the idea of St. Petersburg as a cultural, scientific and industrial center.
“The main problem for Russia nowadays is the absence of any unifying power or idea,” said Bortko.
“The only way to save the country is to build socialism.”