08/02/2008 > RUSSIA
In order to register for the
elections, independent hopefuls (not nominated by any party) are required to collect two million signatures in their
favour. The four candidates who met these requirements are Putin's
"successor" Dmitri Medvedev, Communist Party leader Gennadi Zyuganov,
Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (a nationalist and ally of Putin) and last,
and probably least, Andrei Bogdanov, who the opposition nickname ‘Kremlin's pet
democrat'.
The reason the People's Democratic
Union [Kasyanov's party] missed out is because their party didn't have the necessary experience to make up the votes, unlike me.
The Kremlin’s ‘pet democrat’ tells us how to get through the system
As the ruckus of the American primaries rambles on, the les noisy wheels of the Russian presidential elections are also in motion. While four applicants were accepted as candidates, the People's Democratic Union leader and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov - a known rival of Putin- was declined for having forged 13% of the two million required signatures. The only supposedly ‘different' candidate who managed to get through the rigid process was Andrei Bogdanov, little known leader of the little known Russian Democratic Party. A former member of Putin's ruling United Russia Party, and hoping for 3.5% of the vote ‘if lucky'; the candidate doesn't offer much competition. However, the Putin fan denies being a stooge for the president. Our Observer for Russia spoke to him about why he, and not Kasyanov, managed to become a candidate.
The contributors
Our Observer for Russia explains the process
In order to register for the
elections, independent hopefuls (not nominated by any party) are required to collect two million signatures in their
favour. The four candidates who met these requirements are Putin's
"successor" Dmitri Medvedev, Communist Party leader Gennadi Zyuganov,
Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (a nationalist and ally of Putin) and last,
and probably least, Andrei Bogdanov, who the opposition nickname ‘Kremlin's pet
democrat'.
The fifth hopeful for the March elections was opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov. But a week ago, the Central Elections Commission declared that 13% of the signatures he had collected were falsified or invalid. Many experts were surprised by the fact that a politician as well known as Kasyanov failed to comply to this requirement, while little-known Bogdanov apparently had no problems. In December's parliamentary elections, Bogdanov's party only managed to receive 89,000 votes."
Commentary from Andrei Bogdanov
The reason the People's Democratic
Union [Kasyanov's party] missed out is because their party didn't have the necessary experience to make up the votes, unlike me.
Our party has 70 offices around the country. Each of our 82,000 members is assigned a certain precinct to collect signatures door to door. It's impossible to organize such a large-scale operation from scratch. The problem for Kasyanov was that his people didn't have the infrastructure or experience that they needed to collect two million signatures. There are lots of hidden obstacles, and only an experienced team would know how to overcome them. For example, lots of people forget to re-register their passports, and a non-renewed passport is invalid. That's just one example of an obstacle you might run into, and that's why it takes experience to foresee things and plan accordingly. I'm certain Kasyanov and his team made lots of mistakes, which was proven in the course of the examination concluded by the Central Elections Commission."
