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CPRF and the League of Voters ink an agreement to cooperate in presidential polls

On Thursday Russia’s League of Voters and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) signed an agreement on cooperation in the forthcoming presidential polls

MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) — On Thursday Russia’s League of Voters and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) signed an agreement on cooperation in the forthcoming presidential polls due to take place on March 4.

“We agreed to pool efforts at the balloting stations,” Ivan Melnikov, the first deputy chairman of the Communist Party and head of the party’s election headquarters, said before the signing. “Our election commission members enjoying both the full voting status and the advisory voting status, as well as our observers will work together.”

According to Melnikov, the Communist Party’s presidential candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, already has agreements with two other presidential candidates – leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky and leader of the Just Russia party Sergei Mironov – to pool efforts to ensure fair elections of the head of state.

“We will jointly train observers. We will set up information exchange centres in each of the Russian regions. These centres will receive information from observers delegated by both the Communist Party and the League of Voters,” Melnikov said.

“A general database dubbed as a ‘Summary Protocol’ will have electronic copies of observer reports,” said Georgy Vasilyev, a co-founder of the League of Voters. In his words, this database will be available on the Internet.

According to the League of Voters, Zyuganov’s headquarters is the first to sign such an agreement, while another candidate, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, said he was also interested in signing the document. The League, however, hopes other candidates will also join.

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