Director of the International Institute for political expertise Evgeny Minchenko presented to journalists his seven myths about the illegitimacy of the Russian authorities and the elections. He also gave his opinion about how to achieve fair elections. “We have many myths about these elections. My main business is not political technologies but lobbyism. Tobacco companies often stimulate anti-tobacco campaigns that stress unimportant moments, for instance, whether cigarettes should be sold to children, instead of emphasising the excise taxes. Everybody discusses that and forgets about excise. I think that the discussion of these elections reminds me of this campaign. I chose seven myths that exist in the mass media and in blogs about the legitimacy of the current authorities,” the expert said.
Myth one
A long stay in power is a reason to regard this power as illegitimate. Let’s look at the examples: Jean Chretien, Canadian Prime Minister for 20 years. Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor for 16 years. Grimsson, president of Iceland from 1996, in 2000 his responsibilities were prolonged, because nobody wanted to compete with him in the presidential race, so there were no elections. In 2004 he fought against his opponent. In 2008 his responsibilities were prolonged without elections, there will be new elections in 2012 and Grimsson does not exclude his participation. Chretien and Kohl had similar situations, although we, of course, need to understand that the system is different – it is a parliamentary democracy.
Myth two
The fact of an elite conspiracy, meaning the "castle move" of Putin-Medvedev, is a reason to see the power as illegitimate. Unfortunately, this is how politics function. A good example is Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. When choosing a candidate for prime minister they agreed that Blair would be first and Brown second. Putin even gave this example. When Blair left his position after a row, there were no elections. Gordon Brown worked for another three years, although people who voted for the Labour Party at the parliamentary elections voted for Blair as prime minister. When the elections finally took place, the Labour party lost. This is how society can show its attitude to these conspiracies. Our reaction was seen at Bolotnaya and Sakharov Avenue.
Myth three
Removal of all undesirable candidates in Russia. Indeed, Grigory Yavlinsky with his rating of 1.5% could not take part in the elections. But I want to look at the electoral campaign in France. They have a very specific system, in which the candidate has to gain the support of 500 democratically-elected bureaucrats. Although there are at least 50,000 of them in France, Marine le Pen, with her rating of 17%, cannot get these. And this is not Yavlinsky, with his 1.5%, it is a person who has a real chance of getting into the second round. I hope Marine le Pen will manage to solve this problem, as it happened to her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, when after great social pressure the party of power ordered to collect the missing signatures. There are different strategies to remove undesirable candidates. A good example is the impeachment of Rolandos Paksos in Lithuania: he was acquitted by the court but did not return to his post. Another example – the Strauss-Kahn story, who was leading the ratings but could not take part in the election campaign. Bidzina Ivanishvili was not deprived of Georgian citizenship, but is still not allowed to participate in the electoral campaign.
Myth four
One party and one candidate dominate the mass-media. I believe these problems exist everywhere. In the US the candidates from the two key parties dominate everybody else. On the other hand, if we take these elections, no candidate for a long time has had so much TV time as Mikhail Prokhorov.
Myth five
Vladimir Putin did not participate in the debates and thus made the election illegitimate, because the voters could not look at him. In the last elections in the USA, of 23 candidates, Ralf Nader was registered in 48 states out of 51, but Barack Obama debated only with John McCain. Although according to the rule, the debates should involve those with 15 percent of the electorate. France, 2002, Chirac and Le Pen. France usually does not have debates before the first round, but only before the second. When Chirac went to the second round with Le Pen, he refused to debate with him. Mikhail Saakashvili, who is often presented as a good democrat, participated in the elections twice but never debated with anyone.
Myth six (very common)
Russian legislation creates good conditions for falsifications. So we need to write laws like in other democratic countries. I can say that the problem is not in the law, we have a very strict laws about elections. Some people say that we should ban early voting. In the US about 30% vote before the scheduled date. If we adopt the rules of the other countries, the situation will only get worse. If we look at how the observers are allowed into the polling stations, in France you need to be a member of the committee to observe, the US often do not allow observers at the polling stations, especially foreigners. So Russia is very liberal about observers.
Myth seven
Mass protests are a reason to reconsider the results of the elections. A good example is the attempt at a “cactus revolution” in Mexico in 2006. They had two million on the streets. They had the phenomenon “I do not know a single person who voted for this candidate”. But the fact was that Obrador was the mayor of Mexico City, and he had support in the capital and in the southern region, and people there indeed did not know those who voted for Calderon. The protests did not bring any result.
What is to be done?
To make the elections more transparent and fair, we need an independent juridical authority and the presence of opposition in the parliaments in the regional authority. I believe that if elections for governors come back they will allow a redistribution of the administrative resourcing among the parties. The existence of conflicts among the elites, of the tradition of competition that we still need to develop, because 20 years is not enough for it, independent mass media, working federalism. The suggestions made by Dmitry Medvedev are also appropriate in my view – the liberalization of the registration of political parties and direct elections of governors.
