Pro-Environment Parties Fall Out of Russian Parliament

MOSCOW, Russia, December 8, 2003 (ENS) - National elections to the Russian Parliament, the State Duma, on Sunday resulted in a win for President Vladimir Putin's favorite, the United Russia party, which took 37 percent of the ballots. The two democratic parties that have supported the anti-nuclear and environmental movement in the past - Yablonko and SPS - are out of parliament now, the first time that parliamentary elections have affected the anti-nuclear movement at all, campaigners said.

According to the official results, the Communist Party was the second most popular bloc, taking 12.7 percent of the vote. The Liberal Democrats took 11.6 percent, and the Homeland Party took 9.1 percent.

Yablonko officially took only 4.3 percent of the vote, and SPS, the Union of Right Forces, took 3.9 percent - not enough to win seats in the Duma as a party must win at least five percent of the votes to gain a seat.

SPS and Yabloko are considered to be liberals that were confronting authoritarism and anti-environmental legislation. For example, they were only parties that voted against the import of nuclear waste in 2001, which was eventually approved by the Duma.

Russian voter attempts to decipher the Duma ballot which listed 23 political parties. (Photos by Urdur Gunnarsdottir courtesy OSCE)

During a meeting with the government on Monday, President Putin said, "The main conclusion from the Duma elections is that another step has been made toward strengthening democracy in the Russian Federation."

Observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States have recognized the elections as free, open and democratic, chairman of the Executive Council, CIS Executive Secretary Yuri Yarov told journalists on Monday.

But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the elections "failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments, calling into question Russia's willingness to move towards European standards for democratic elections." The International Election Observation Mission statement, issued today, was the consensus of more than 500 international observers from 42 countries who monitored the voting and counting from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg.

Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense, a Russian national anti-nuclear organization, called the elections a sad day for the environment. The winning party, the United Russia party, has in the past "proved to be totally anti-environmental and pro-nuclear," said Slivyak. He described members of United Russia as "industrial lobbyists and bureaucrats."

It may appear from the election returns that environmental issues are not of interest to people, but that is "absolutely not true," Slivyak said. "All of the related opinion polls here show environmental concerns are on the top."

A Russian voter casts her ballot.

"An automatic majority" will be formed in the new State Duma, said political scientist Gleb Pavlovsky, president of the Effektivnaya Politika Fund, commenting on the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections.

"The majority in the State Duma has been formed before it has been decided what it will do," said Pavlovsky on Echo of Moscow radio station.

Slivyak said, "We are kind of getting back into the USSR which had a system with only one political party ruling the country as it wants."

The OSCE agreed to some extent. While giving credit to the Central Election Commission for its "professional organization" of the elections, the OSCE said the pre-election process was "characterized by extensive use of the state apparatus and media favoritism to benefit the largest pro-presidential party, reflected in voter apathy."

"Given that procedures on election day were conducted in a technically correct way, it is even more regrettable that the main impression of the overall electoral process is of regression in the democratization process in Russia," said Bruce George MP, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the special coordinator for the short term observers.

"We are very concerned at the unfair practices, which have benefited one party," said David Atkinson MP, head of the Parliamentary Delegation of the Council of Europe. "Real political competition and choice for the voters are indispensable elements in a true democratic election process."

Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Christian Strohal (center) and Rita Suessmuth, Head of the Election Observation Mission for the State Duma elections (right), discuss the elections with a local observer at a Moscow polling station.

"State media failed to provide balanced coverage of the campaign and considerable pressure was exerted on journalists, which restricted information available to voters to make an informed choice. Steps should be taken to develop the state broadcasters into a truly independent public service."

The next four years in this country will be crucial for civil society as it exists now in Russia - for the environmental movement and the human rights movement, Slivyak says.

"Public movements would probably be left without political support," he warned, "left alone fighting authoritarism, environmental degradation caused by bloody corporations and cash hungry government."