MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) —— On Thursday Russia’s League of Voters and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov who is running for Russian president signed an agreement on cooperation in the forthcoming presidential polls due on March 4.
The agreement provides for the formation of a general database of protocols of observers monitoring the elections.
Prokhorov said the database will be very important to prove the legitimacy of the future head of state. “For the first time in Russia’s history, a nationwide database is being formed to make it possible to clearly see how legitimate Russia’s authorities are. The thing that matters for us is not, who wins the election, but rather it is important to know that the winner has a legitimate right to rule the country,” Prokhorov said. “This is a key issue,” he stressed.
In turn, co-founder of the League of Voters Georgy Vasilyev said the League invited all the presidential candidates to sign such an agreement. “The key provision of the agreement is that observers from all candidates, who would sign the agreement, will be entered into a common system dubbed as a ‘Summary Protocol,’” he explained. In his words, this database of observer reports will be available on the Internet to anyone “who wants to know, how fair the presidenial elections were.”
According to Vasilyev, a similar agreement was signed earlier in the day with the headquarters of another presidential candidate, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. He also expressed the hope that another candidate for Russian president, leader of the Just Russia party Sergei Mironov, will also join. Mironov, in his words, “confirmed his intention in a written form.” “So far we are not certain if two more candidates sign it,” he added.