45 parties in Russia enjoy right to run in election race

Seventy political parties have been registered in Russia, of them two thirds enjoy the right to run in the elections, the deputy chairman of the central election commission, Leonid Ivlev, told journalists on Friday. “There are now 70 political parties in the country, of them 45 have the right to take part in the elections,” he said after a meeting with heads of regional election commissions that took place at the Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg. Ivlev explained that the party gets the right to run in the elections, if it has its branches in 50 percent of Russia’s regions as a minimum. Forty-eight parties participated in the formation of district election commissions that completed last April. A total of 830,000 persons became members of district election commission, another 500,000 remained in the candidate pool. District election commissions were for the first time formed on a regular basis - their members will have to work 5 years. “The central election commission has received no complaint concerning the formation of district election commissions,” Ivlev said.