Parliamentary elections in Dagestan are to be held on March, 13. “Right Cause”, LDPR (liberal Democratic Party of Russia), “Fair Russia”, “Russian Patriots”, “United Russia” and CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) are the parties that will compete for parliamentary seats.
Islam Klichkhanov, doctor of Economy, deputy chairman of “Fair Russia” Dagestani branch:
I think that “United Russia”, CPRF, “Fair Russia” and “Russian Patriots” will form the new parliament. And as the number of parliamentary seats has grown, the number of “United Russia” seats will grow respectively, to ensure the constitutional majority our President requires. The presence of “Fair Russia” should increase as well. CPRF and “Russian Patriots” should win the same percentage of votes this time, competing with each other for third place.
After the recent xenophobic statements of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the LDPR, the party is unlikely to cross the 5% barrier, as well as the “Right Cause” (ex-“Union of Right Forces) party. The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko didn’t even register for the elections: the head of the local party administration claims that he fails to see any democratic elements in these elections.
Ruslan Rasylov, deputy chairman of human right watch organization ‘Union of Peoples’ Rights Protection”:
As the majority system of parliamentary elections has been canceled, our citizens are now deprived of their constitutional rights: now, you have to be a member of a political party to be elected, even if you don’t share the ideology of any of them. And there are actually no classical ‘parties’ in modern Russia: “United Russia” and “Fair Russia” follow their own corporative agendas, the CPRF is just a brand, nothing more. One of the “Right Cause” leaders, Boris Nemtsov, was arrested while defending the 31 paragraph of our Constitution – are present-day ‘communists’ capable of such a thing? I suppose not. They just occupy a niche that should be occupied by some other socialist party. And the so-called “Fair Russia” party supports all the projects of “United Russia”, unfair as they are. The LDPR is compromised by its leader’s xenophobic statements, so there is no one left except for the “United Russia” to win these elections.
I was an observer at the last presidential elections: 271 people came to our polling station, but when they opened the ballot box, there were 1000 balloys in it – and all in favor of the acting president. However, this incident had no legal consequences.
Musa Musaev, Machachkala. Exclusively for VK
