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Russia to invite poll monitors
30/10/2007 16:18 - (SA)
Moscow - Russia was to invite international observers on Tuesday to monitor its December 2 parliamentary polls, following criticism of the lateness of the invitations.
The invitations were due as Russian newspapers raised fresh questions about Moscow's commitment to democratic principles, particularly the format of televised campaigning.
On Monday the head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, said a maximum of 300-400 international observers would be invited to monitor the December polls.
That is less than half the number at the last parliamentary elections and suggested a sharp reduction in the number of observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the main western monitoring body.
The Gazeta newspaper quoted a member of the election commission, Igor Borisov, as rejecting criticism of Russia's lateness in issuing the invitations, which the OSCE said earlier was hampering its preparations.
Borisov said Russia was not bound by a deadline and added that Russia "is already a democratic state and doesn't need help organising and conducting elections".
Last week Russia proposed reining in the activities of OSCE monitoring missions, which Moscow accuses of stoking up discontent in countries they have worked in.
Critics believe Russia hopes to hamper the OSCE observers at its own elections.
'Stretching to the limit'
They believe this is partly because President Vladimir Putin, who is to step down after a presidential poll in March, is to be the lead candidate of the main pro-Kremlin party United Russia at the December polls.
On Tuesday the Vedomosti newspaper reported that United Russia had notified the election commission that it did not intend to participate in televised pre-election debates mandated by legislation.
Kommersant newspaper said the main state-controlled television channels were trying to minimise mandatory prime-time broadcasting of campaign programmes.
The channels were "stretching to the limit" the definition of prime time by pushing such programmes to either end of the evening period or shifting them to early morning, Kommersant said.
- AFP
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