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Yabloko exclusion from St. Petersburg vote nonsense - official

MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - A senior Russian rights official working under the president said Wednesday the refusal by authorities to register a liberal party for the spring elections in St. Petersburg made no sense.

Election committees in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan and Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, refused Saturday to register the liberal Yabloko party for regional legislative elections in March, saying that more than 10% of the signatures in support of the party were fake. Yabloko's leaders said it was a political move designed to neutralize the opposition.

"Yabloko's non-participation in the St. Petersburg [elections] is nonsense," Ella Pamfilova, head of the president-affiliated civil society institutes and rights council, told the coordinating council for election rights, which will monitor the elections for the first time.

In 2003, Yabloko won only four seats in Russia's 450-seat lower house of parliament. The party's poor performance was widely attributed to its failure to merge with another liberal bloc, the Union of Right Forces (SPS). Since then, the State Duma has been increasingly dominated by the pro-Kremlin party United Russia.

"The main objective is to not accept destructive attempts to scorch the political field," Pamfilova said, adding that such actions could eventually alienate people from the electoral process entirely.

Elections to local legislatures in 14 Russian regions will be held March 11. Seven regions have already completed registration of candidate parties.

The right-wing Union of Right Forces (SPS), which was popular in the turbulent post-Soviet years, has also been denied registration in Daghestan. The Communists and experts have said the authorities are thereby clearing the way for A Just Russia - a populist merger widely seen as a Kremlin project to poach votes from left-wing parties.

Pamfilova was also critical of the new election law that abolished the 20% threshold for voter turnout, and canceled early voting and the "against all candidates" option on election ballots at all levels.

The Kremlin has said the amendments are meant to safeguard Russian elections from irresponsible marginal parties, whereas rights groups have vehemently criticized the decision, saying it is part of the Kremlin's ongoing clampdown on democracy.

"The 'against all candidates' option was removed following recommendations from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe," Pamfilova said. "They made the recommendation without taking into account the situation in our country."