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Right Cause to act as “none of the above” ballot option - Bogdanov

"We will present 157,500 signatures to the Central Election Commission"

MOSCOW, October 6 (Itar-Tass) — At the upcoming election to the State Duma lower house of parliament the Right Cause Party will act as the “none of the above” ballot option, which ceased to exist some time ago, one of the leaders on the party’s list of candidates, Andrei Bogdanov, told a news conference on Thursday.

Bogdanov, who is head of the Social Technologies Centre, said there is no such ballot option in voting papers any longer, but according to sociologists up to 12 percent of Russian nationals would like to have it back.

That is why, this will be “the main message” of the party to the voters. “If you want to make a nasty gesture at the party of power, vote for Right Cause,” he explained.

On the whole, the party’s program consists of 24 items. Apart from returning the “none of the above” option into ballot papers, the party seeks to lower gasoline prices to 15-17 rubles per litre as well as duty-free imports of foreign vehicles. There are also other slogans in store.

Besides, the Right Cause Party demands the return of direct elections of governors and mayors and elections to the Federation Council as well as the abolishment of a vote threshold at the State Duma elections for political parties.

As for the upcoming election, due on December 4, the party needs to collect at least 150,000 signatures in its support to register its list of candidates. Bogdanov pledged that the necessary amount of signatures would be collected by October 11.

“We will present 157,500 signatures to the Central Election Commission,” he said. Bogdanov also said that the party expected to get at least seven percent of the votes.