The October 14 New York Times carries a front-page story about new ballot access restrictions in Russia, which are keeping certain parties off the December 2007 Parliamentary ballot even though those same parties were able to elect members of the Duma in the last election. The article is here.
The last election for the Duma was in 2003, when parties needed petitions signed by 10,000 signers to be on the nationwide ballot in Duma elections. The petition says that all signers are members of that party. The Duma has 450 seats. The new rules require 50,000 such signatures throughout the nation. The article does not say how many parties have been able to comply, but it says the Republican Party is being kept off the ballot. The Republican Party and its leader, Vladimir Ryzhkov, are described by the Times as fervent advocates for democracy. Ryzhkov cannot run for re-election because his party was told that it failed to submit 50,000 valid signatures. Ryzhkov says his party easily met the standard, but said officials ignored the evidence in a sham proceeding.
In 2006, a new party that wanted to be on the ballot for all US House elections would have needed 1,162,714 valid signatures.
It looks like we’re successfully spreading American-style democracy to Russia!
Remember though, all it takes to be on the ballot in Russia is for your party to have 50,000 members registered with the federal government. Then, if your party gets over 7% of the national popular vote, you are ASSURED seats in the Duma (the lower house). Note that all 450 seats are decided by proportional representation now (no single member districts), so that is quite a few seats if you make 7% or more of the vote. Lets be honest here, Russia has a far more fair electoral system than the US does for both the Duma and the president (who is directly elected by the popular vote, not selected by an “Electoral College”). These facts show the complete hypocrisy (and deceptive propaganda) of the NYTimes article.
Since the *sham proceeding* happened, Russia is now one more TYRANT regime — posing as a Democracy — just like the old and now dead Union of Soviet Socialist *Republics* — the ex- U.S.S.R.
Of course Putin being an ex-KGB / NKVD / whatever XYZ secret police type just loves controlling ballot access.