>From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Communists protest vote fraud in Russia > > >Special to the World > > >Russian voters went to the polls March 26 and sent a message of protest >against intolerable living conditions after a decade of "gangster capitalism" >following the breakup of the Soviet Union. > >The message came through despite evidence of widespread ballot-box stuffing. >Acting President Vladimir V. Putin was declared the victor with 52.57 percent >of the vote. Putin and his backers were desperate to achieve an outright >majority to avoid a runoff with second-place finisher, Gennadi Zyuganov, >candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) who polled >29.45 percent of the vote. > >Putin achieved that narrow majority. Even so, commentators interpreted the >vote as a disappointment for Putin and an unexpectedly strong showing for >Zyuganov. The most recent poll had indicated that Putin would capture 57 >percent of the vote, a landslide. Zyuganov's vote on the other hand was 20 >percent higher than predicted in that same poll. > >In his first news conference following the election, Putin paid tribute to >Zyuganov's strong showing and told reporters it was a warning that the Kremlin >is not responding to the deepening crisis for Russia's working class, poor and >unemployed. > >Zyuganov told the press March 27 that he believes that the CPRF actually >polled 40 percent of the vote but a huge number of these votes were stolen. >The Communist Party will demand the right to examine all poll results, >Zyuganov, said. "Total falsification is going on in Chechnya, Dagestan, Kursk, >Lipetsk, Tatarstan," he said. > >One polling place in Tatarstan, he charged, increased its voter rolls by 100 >percent in one day. Election officials compiled votes from across 11 time >zones and reported that 68 percent of Russia's 108 million voters had cast >ballots. First returns from the Far East showed Putin with only 46 percent of >the vote. This matched similar percentages he was receiving in Moscow and St. >Petersburg. If those results had continued, it would have meant a runoff with >Zyuganov would have been certain. > >As the Baltimore Sun's Moscow correspondent put it, "But after those figures >came out, hours went by without a significant update. Then at 11:45 p.m., >nearly four hours after polls closed in European Russia, new returns from St. >Petersburg showed Putin with 62.3 percent in his native city." > >Putin sent out an open letter to Russian voters, but as Lena Davidow pointed >out in a report faxed to the World, "His letter contained only vague >statements of his intentions. There is not a word on how he will restore >industrial production" and he made no pledge to halt the privatization >process. > >Davidow added that Yeltsin's resignation, the appointment of Putin as "acting >president" and the early scheduling of the presidential election was an >orchestrated plan to steal the election. It provided no time for a >full-fledged debate of the issues. > >Zyuganov and the CPRF were frozen out of the media, she said. Zyuganov called >for a nationally televised debate of all the presidential candidates to give >the people a chance to hear their platforms. But that demand was ignored. > >Instead, Putin campaigned on his promise of victory in the war in Chechnya, a >popular position since the Russian people are looking for a leadership that >will stand up against the imperialist drive to split the huge Russian >Federation. Putin even piloted a Mig fighter to the Chechnya war front. > >Zyuganov, by contrast, presented a fully developed program to avert "a new >economic collapse," which he warned will engulf the country. "The oligarchs >who have robbed the people know better than others that a new collapse is >approaching fast. To remain in power, they have decided to deceive you once >again." > >Zyuganov offered an alternative program that included an immediate raise in >pensions, allowances and salaries, a minimum wage for all workers of not less >than 1,000 rubles and a raise in salaries of teachers and doctors to not less >than 3,000 rubles. He coupled it with a pledge to impose strict controls on >the prices of food and essentials. Electricity, telephone and other utilities >would be reduced. > >"Our country is still very rich," Zyugonov said. "To 'sew the holes' in the >budget, the people and the state must be returned the [stolen] property." > > > > --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
