Moscow Times
July 9, 2009
Opposition Picks 10 for City Race
By Natalya Krainova / The Moscow Times
Ten anti-Kremlin politicians will run in Moscow City Duma elections this fall with the hope that the economic crisis will help them win seats.
Solidarity co-leader Boris Nemtsov will head the election headquarters for the 10 candidates put forward Wednesday by Solidarity and the Russian People’s Democratic Union, headed by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, said one of the candidates, former Young Yabloko leader Ilya Yashin.
“If we are registered, we will have a real chance given the current economic crisis,” Yashin said.
Describing the Oct. 11 vote as having “federal significance,” Yashin said the candidates would run on a platform of fighting against corruption, illegal construction and growing utility prices.
The other opposition candidates include former Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov and Dmitry Katayev, a former Union of Right Forces member and a vocal critic of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
The candidates will run in nine of Moscow’s 17 single-mandate districts.
The opposition now only has two seats in the 35-seat City Duma, and they are controlled by Yabloko.
Yabloko will probably participate in the elections with six other political parties: United Russia, the Communist Party, A Just Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, Right Cause and Patriots of Russia, the city’s top election official said at a news conference Wednesday.
United Russia has 29 seats in the current Duma, and the Communists have the remaining four.
Moscow voters will elect 18 candidates on party lists and 17 in single-mandate districts this fall, compared to 20 on party lists and 15 in districts in the last elections in 2005, Moscow Election Committee chief Valentin Gorbunov said, Interfax reported.
The upcoming vote will also see the threshold for winning seats drop from 10 percent to 7 percent, Gorbunov said.
The elections will also be the first time that seats are distributed under the Imperiali system, which provides a disproportionate number of seats to election winners. Last month, United Russia approved legislation to adopt the new system by which the winning party gets one or two additional seats at the expense of the losing party in what the Communists and Yabloko called an attempt to preserve its dominant status despite the crisis.
Gorbunov suggested that the crisis could boost turnout from 34 percent in 2005.
“When it’s hard, people … become confident that the outcome of an election depends on their voice,” he said.