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PARNAS members to run in regional elections from Republican Party

“PARNAS will be created on the basis of the Republican Party the registration of which will be restored,” PARNAS co-chairman Boris Nemtsov said

MOSCOW, April 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Members of the unregistered People's Freedom Party (PARNAS) will run in regional elections from the Republican Party, according to the decision made by the PARNAS Federal Political Council on Wednesday, April 18.

“The decision has been adopted that PARNAS members will participate in regional elections in the autumn of 2012 using the Republican Party as a legal entity, not PARNAS’ registration,” Republican Party Co-Chair Valentina Melnikova said.

She said this would not be “either a takeover or merger” because the “Republicans are members of PARNAS” and “these are some other mechanisms”.

“PARNAS will be created on the basis of the Republican Party the registration of which will be restored,” PARNAS co-chairman Boris Nemtsov said.

He did not say straightforwardly whether this means that members of his party will join the Republican Party.

“The decision how this will be done technically will be made after the registration of the Republican Party has been restored. This will be decided by the congress to be held no later than July 8,” he said.

The party is co-chaired by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Boris Nemtsov. It was created about two years ago but could not obtain official registration from the Justice Ministry.

Republican Party Co-Chair Valentina Melnikova welcomed the Federal Political Council’s decision. “I am glad that the Republican Party will provide the platform for a big democratic party,” she said.

Kasyanov said the renovated party will be an ideological successor to PARNAS. “Our task is to right to freedom and against corruption,” he said.

He said the name of the party would be determined by a congress to be held no later than July 8.

Kasyanov stressed that the party hopes to participate in the upcoming regional elections this autumn. “Registration is needed in order to be allowed to participate in the elections,” he said.

The People’s Freedom Party was created in December 2010. Mikhail Kasyanov, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov and Vladimir Ryzhkov became its co-chairmen. Documents for registration were submitted in late May 2011. At that time, PARNAS had 53 regional offices and more than 46,000 members.

The Justice Ministry denied registration to the party in June on account that its charter “contains provisions that contravene the Law on Political Parties or other federal laws”.