LOCAL

By Anna Arutunyan and Elena Kirillova

Sunday's Moscow City Duma elections would seem to provide Muscovites with a lot to choose from - six different parties plus numerous individuals for single mandate seats. The one choice they will not be offered, apparently, is a solution to the everyday problems that affect their districts.

"I don't see anyone worth voting for," said Anton, a 33-year-old company director from the Kuzminki area. "Our district's main problem is money being misspent. The street lamps are switched on all day long. What for? And then some areas are without light at all, which is dangerous at night. We also have a lot of tramps, stray animals and drunkards on the streets. We have had these problems for years, and we will have them for years to come."

"It doesn't matter what party I vote for," said Alexander, a 56-year-old accountant in northern Moscow's VDNKh area. "The bureaucrat is in power, and it will be he who decides. We have complained several times about the lousy condition of our entryway, and they haven't done anything."

Anton and Alexander were among about 20 respondents polled by The Moscow News ahead of the Moscow City Duma elections. Most had little faith that their voice would make a difference. About half said they would purposely invalidate their ballots.

Meanwhile, an independent Levada poll has shown that less than half of Muscovites intend to go to the polls, with most of them supporting the Luzhkov-backed United Russia.

"Moscow has one of the least representative legislative organs among all of Russia's regions, with 200,000 voters for each deputy," said Andrei Buzin, an electoral law expert who heads the Interregional Union of Voters. "The Moscow City Duma is not an independent organ. And most Muscovites understand that the real decisions on all issues are made by the city administration - the mayor's office and its sub-departments."

The City Duma is a one-chamber parliament with a total of 35 deputies. In this year's election, 18 will be chosen from party lists, meaning that each party will take the number of mandates proportionate to the percent of the vote received. Meanwhile, 17 deputies are elected directly, and they do not have to be members of one of the seven federally registered parties. Six parties - the pro-Kremlin United Russia, the Communists, the nationalist LDPR, the left-of-centre Just Russia, the liberal opposition Yabloko, and the Patriots of Russia - are involved in the election. The new pro-Kremlin liberals, Pravoye Delo, said they won't take part.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, incidentally, heads United Russia's party list, a common practice for regional elections, said a political expert.

"Regional heads frequently lead United Russia's party lists, then give up their seat in parliament once they win," said Tatyana Stanovaya of the Center for Political Technologies. "They act as so-called ‘steam engines', getting more votes for the party of power."

According to Stanovaya, the current mixed system that includes both party lists and direct elections combines the best of both systems, and ensures variety in parliament. "The proportional system [of party lists] is worse for the party of power, because it guarantees that other parties will get into parliament. On the other hand, it allows each party to bring representatives who are relatively unknown but who are useful to the party. The single-mandate system is based on the charisma and popularity of the individual, and technically makes it possible for United Russia to have a representative from every district."

But some believe that any genuine opposition doesn't even have a chance to take part in the ballot. Yury Trunov, a prominent lawyer and member of the Pravoye Delo party, had his registration denied on two "trumped-up" grounds, he said. One of the reasons was that he "included an official statement that I am a member of the Collegiate of Lawyers. Instead, they said, I was supposed to include a xeroxed copy of a lawyer's identification card issued by the Justice Ministry."

Ilya Yashin, a member of the oppositionist Solidarity organisation, was not registered because all the signatures in his petitions were found to be invalid, a claim he has tried to dispute.

Vox pop

Ksenia, HR worker, 27: The majority of young people will vote. It is just not comme il faut for them to support any party of government. They consider it OK not to give a shit. If you trust in government, you are a loser. I will definitely vote, but I haven't decided for whom yet. Probably I will vote for the candidate that has so few votes he will lose anyway.

Viktor, interior designer, 27: When that farce that people still call an election out of habit is held, I'm going to spoil the ballot paper and invalidate it. I will try to agitate as many people as possible to do the same. That would be my active boycott.

Sergei, teacher, 54: People should vote for the party that suggests a strategy of city development. Maybe United Russia - they were against constructing new buildings in already built-up areas. It doesn't mean that I will vote for them, though.

Yekaterina, AvtoVAZ worker, 29: I will vote for communists or will not vote at all. Not because I like them, but because I think that is the only way to show rebellion against the current situation, including the factory.