Pro-Kremlin Party surges ahead

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PTI) —In their best ever electoral performance in the post-Soveit era, the pro-Kremlin Unity Party was today breathing down the neck of the Communist Party, pushing up Russian Premier Vladimir Putin’s presidential aspirations.

The Centrists group was just 0.7 per cent votes behind the Communist Party who have 24.38 per cent after 82.12 per cent of vote counting ended tonight for the general elections of state Duma, lower house of parliament.

A senior aide of Mr Boris Yeltsin, Mr Staffigor Shabdurasulov, said “Mr Putin has emerged as a consolidating force and he will be our choice for the presidency.” Mr Yeltsin had expressed satisfaction at the poll outcome as it would have an imminent impact on the economic policies of the country, he added.

“For the first time in 10 years the Duma will not be controlled by the Communists. This victory is hard to overestimate,” former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, who leads the Union of Right Forces, said.

The poll apparently endorsed Mr Putin’s aggressive stance against the breakaway Republic of Chechnya against whom the federal troops have been fighting for the last three months.

The Pro-Kremlin Party, launched barely two months ago on the Chechnya wave, bagged 23.6 per cent votes and 10 seats in direct contest and according to preliminary estimates would have 76 seats in the lower House.

Though the Russia Communist Party (KPRF) of Mr Gennady Zyuganov is set to emerge as the single largest parliamentary faction by bagging 24.4 per cent votes in the federal list of 225 seats allocated on proportional basis it would have approximately 111 seats in the total 450 seats, much less than the comfortable majority of 250 votes enjoyed by it with allies in the outgoing Duma.

The Kremlin successfully snatched the Communist slogan of capturing Duma in several columns and managed to seek the entry of the Kiriyenko’s Party (about 30 seats) and Russian politics’s “enfant terrible’ Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s bloc (18 seats) with the public support of premier Putin.

However, after initial setback, the “Fatherland All Russia” (OVR) bloc of another former premier Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Luzhkov is set to take third place with 61 Duma seats. So far it has got 12 per cent votes and won 30 seats in direct contest in the constituencies.

While counting of votes was completed in 82.12 per cent constituencies, six parties and blocs have cleared five percent minimum barrier.

Mr Yegor Ligachov, the powerful number two in Soviet ruling politburo under Mikhail Gorbachev, is scheduled to open the first session of the newly elected Duma. Mr Ligachov, 76, is the oldest member of the new House and in accordance with the tradition, he will preside over the maiden sitting till the election of a new speaker, NTV reported.

Meanwhile, Mr Kiriyenko today proposed former premier Sergei Stepashin for the post of Speaker.

The old party of power, “our-home is russia” (NDR) created by the Kremlin in 1995 under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has polled slightly more than 1 per cent votes and will not be represented in the new Duma.

However, in a direct contest former premier Chernomyrdin has bagged one Duma seat from the Yamalo-Nenets constituency in eastern Siberia.

Besides Mr Chernomyrdin four former prime ministers will sit in the new Duma Mr Nikolai Ryzhkov, Mr Yegor Gaidar (SPS list), Mr Yevgeny Primakov and Mr Sergei Stepashin.

The biggest suprise of the Duma poll outcome was the return of the first wave of radical reformists who had launched THE Radical Economic Reforms in Russia after the break up of the USSR. Their SPS got 8.71 per cent votes much more than liberal “Yabloko” of Grigory Yavlinsky.

Mr Yabloko losing part of its electorate to the SPS was another suprise of the Duma poll.

The third place of Primakov-Luzhkov’s OVR could have been a surprise to some, but it was a natural fallout of the dirty mudslinging campaign carried by the two state controlled tv channels and media empire of tycoon boris berezovsky against the Moscow Mayor and Mr Primakov.

Mr Boris Berezovsky, a prominent member of the Kremlin inner circle was behind the idea of hurriedly creating a Pro-Kremlin Party to counter the powerful OVR bloc.

Mr Boris Berezovsky and another key member of the Kremlin inner circle, owner of one of the biggest oil companies Sibneft Roman Abramovich have also won Duma seats from remote constituencies in the Caucasus and Chukotka.

The mainstay of the unity party (Yedinstvo) were Russian regions dependent on federal subsidies, Mr Luzhkov said at a news conference today noting that in regions not dependent on the federal alms like Moscow (40 per cent), Tatarstan (about 70per cent) and Bashkortostan (73per cent) the OVR had done well.