Chessmaster Kasparov Boycott urges Russian election boycott

Agence France Presse
March 2, 2004 Tuesday

MOSCOW

A group of liberal Russian journalists and lawmakers led by chess
grandmaster Garry Kasparov Tuesday urged the public to boycott the
forthcoming presidential election, describing as a farce.

The group called on challengers to President Vladimir Putin, who is
all but certain to be reelected for a second mandate in the March 14
poll, to quit the race.

“Those who are aware of their civic duties and cherish their dignity
as citizens cannot and must not take part in such a farce,” said the
2008 Free Elections group said in a statement broadcast on Moscow
Moscow radio station.

“We call on officially registered candidates to end their
participation in this desecration of the notion of an election, and to
withdraw their candidacies.” it said: “It is not too late to make this
decision and leave the authorities to perform the rest of their
shameful spectacle alone.”

It added: “We call on responsible and free-thinking voters to renounce
voting. One cannot obediently and thoughtlessly offer the authorities
such a mandate for dictatorship as they hope to obtain.”

Kasparov, considered the world’s finest chess player despite losing
the champion’s title to Vladimir Kramnik in 2000, allied himself with
opposition journalists and lawmakers who formed the 2008 Free
Elections group after a landslide victory by Putin’s followers in
parliamentary elections last December 7.

The group said its main goal was to ensure the survival of post-Soviet
democracy after United Russia, a party loyal to Putin, won more than
300 seats in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, enough to change
the constitution.

In its founding statement in January, it said: “We will fight to make
sure that a president is elected in 2008 and that it does not turn out
that the current president extends his term, either for a short time
or forever.”

Liberal candidate Irina Khakamada last month threatened to withdraw
from the presidential race to protest against the lack of any real
competition and called on other candidates to join her, but to no
avail.

lpt/eh/da

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