Moscow, Sept 03: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced that parliamentary elections in the country would be held on December 7. Issuing a decree to the effect, Putin said he expected the Electoral Commission would do everything to ensure a fair campaign, "without the mud-slinging, which you usually have in the months before elections".
He told the top Russian election official Alexander Vesgyanakov at a televised meeting here this evening that "such mud-slinging does nothing to improve the authority of our government or our country on the world stage. The voters have an interest that professionals, who could keep promises that they made in the election campaign, come into the government". The incumbent Duma was elected on December 12, 1999 and its four-year term ends this year. Forty-four parties are registered to run in the elections for 480 seats in the state's lower House and need to score a minimum of five per cent of the popular vote to secure representation in Parliament.
Chief Election Commissioner Veshnyakov told Putin that under the new election law 44 parties and political groups would be eligible to contest for seats in the house, 50 percent on the basis of party lists and other 225 seats on the basis of direct elections.
Veshnyakov reminded the President that at the last elections 200 parties in the fray. The presidential decree will enter into force today after it is published in the government-run daily. Bureau Report