All news

Yabloko, CPRF parties select their presidential candidates

On Sunday, congresses of the Yabloko and Communist parties almost unanimously selected their presidential candidates

MOSCOW, December 19 (Itar-Tass) — On Sunday, congresses of the Yabloko and Communist parties almost unanimously selected their presidential candidates. They are, as one would expect, Grigory Yavlinsky and Gennady Zyuganov.

Gennady Zyuganov should qualify for the second round of the presidential election, as a minimum. And if he becomes a single candidate of the whole opposition, his victory over Vladimir Putin will be real in the first round. On this optimistic note, according to Kommersant, the congress of the Communist Party that officially nominated Zyuganov as a presidential candidate ended during the past weekend. The Communist Party intends to use the presidential election to build up popular resistance to the “liberal- bureaucratic monopoly,” Kommersant writes. As a result, Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee Gennady Zyuganov said, the majority of Russians should form an understanding: “The way to the future is through the national liberation struggle, social justice, the rule of the people and socialism.”

The Liberal Democratic (LDPR) and Just Russia parties, that have been harshly criticised by the Communist Party leader over the past five years, now may be among allies of the Communists, the newspaper stresses. “We hope and believe: there are those in the ranks of Just Russia for whom justice is not just an attractive flag,” the chairman of the CPRF Central Committee stated. “There are those in the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party who passionately stand up for the outraged power.” “There are many people in the ‘Orange’ ranks who are sincerely fed up with the dictatorship of officials,” he admitted.

At the previous presidential election, Gennady Zyuganov won 17.7 percent of the vote - against 70 percent scored by Dmitry Medvedev, Moskovsky Komsomolets recalls. This time, in connection with the improved rating of the Communist Party in the Duma elections the chief Communist hopes for his “breakthrough” also in the presidential race. A report delivered by First Deputy Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee Ivan Melnikov, who said that “it is necessary to consolidate around Zyuganov the whole protesting front,” focused on citation of the party’s tactical victories, the first of which was a real “solid success” on the results of the Duma election campaign.

The purpose of Yabloko and Grigory Yavlinsky is a non-violent constitutional, legal change of government and the whole existing system, emphasises the publication. “Changing the system is prevention of a revolution. If it is not changed, the danger of a revolution becomes a reality.” Thus, the newspaper notes, seven presidential candidates are known at the moment. Four were nominated by parliamentary parties - Putin, Zhirinovsky, Mironov and Zyuganov. They do not need to collect signatures in their support, so their participation in elections is guaranteed.

The selection of Yabkolo’s candidate took place on a competitive basis, Kommersant writes. The leader of the Khimki forest defenders, Yevgeniya Chirikova, who came to the congress, proposed to the party to nominate for the presidential election the former Yabloko member, blogger Alexei Navalny, who is now serving 15 days for the participation in an unauthorised march on December 5 in protest against the Duma elections results. However, the former comrades-in-arms refused to put Navalny on the ballot for “technical reasons.” By law, every candidate must submit a written consent, without which the CEC will deny registration. And such an agreement was not given on Sunday. In addition, the Yabloko party has ideological differences with Navalny, who in 2008 was expelled from the party for his commitment to “civilised nationalism” and participation in the “Russian March.”