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Poll campaign kicks off in Russia

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW DEC. 10. The presidential election campaign kicked off in Russia on Thursday, four days after the country elected a Parliament.

The Federation Council, the Upper House of Parliament, on Wednesday unanimously voted to set March 14, 2004, as the date for the election. Nomination of candidates begins a day after the vote date has been set.

The President, Vladimir Putin, elected to the post in 2000, is expected to run for re-election and win by a large majority. The Constitution allows one person to serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Mr. Putin's party, United Russia, swept Sunday's parliamentary poll, winning close to half the seats in the State Duma, the Lower House of Parliament. The vote was seen as a dress rehearsal for Mr. Putin's re-election bid. Eighty-two per cent of people surveyed in November by the All-Russia Centre for the Study of Public Opinion said they approved of Mr. Putin.

So far, only the ultra-nationalist leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said he would run for President. His Liberal Democratic Party won just under 12 per cent of the vote in the parliamentary poll, and Mr. Zhirinovsky is unlikely to get more in the presidential election. The Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, today indicated he could also run, provided the party backed his nomination. However, he may not be able to put up serious challenge to Mr. Putin either in view of a serious setback Communists suffered in the parliamentary election where they won less than 13 per cent of the vote.

The two Western-oriented liberal parties, Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) and Yabloko, which failed to make it to Parliament, said they would nevertheless try to nominate a single candidate to run for President.

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