Posted on 09/10/2003 7:00:57 AM PDT by RussianConservative
The Agrarians refused an offer Tuesday to join the Communists and picked two party stalwarts to run with party leader Mikhail Lapshin at the top of their federal list in the Dec. 7 parliamentary elections.
At a congress adorned with girls in traditional peasant dress and slogans saying "Peace and Bread," some 300 delegates approved deputy party chairman Alexander Nazarchuk and Alexei Chepa, the head of an agro-holding and one of the party's main sponsors, for the second and third spots.
Nikolai Kharitonov, leader of the rival agro-industry faction in the State Duma who is running in the No. 2 spot on the Communists' list, attended the congress and urged the Agrarians to join the Communists.
"We need a victory to change people's lives in the countryside. You can make our voices heard in the next Duma if you join forces with the Communists," Kharitonov said.
Lapshin, who has declared his support for President Vladimir Putin and expressed a willingness to cooperate with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, declined.
"This congress is a fight for independence," he said. "We don't want to join the Communists or any other political party. We have already discussed the matter and have decided to go without anyone's help."
Lapshin said the party has, however, accepted Communist support in some of the single-mandate constituencies.
Most of the rural population that the Agrarians are counting on for support voted for the Communist Party in the 1995 and 1999 elections. The Agrarians did not run as an independent party in 1999.
Lapshin said he also declined an offer to join up with the Party of Life, a pro-Kremlin party headed by Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, and the Rebirth of Russia party, headed by Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov. Mironov and Seleznyov announced Saturday that their parties would go into the election together.
If the Agrarians break the 5 percent barrier to get into the Duma, they might join a coalition "able to defend the interests of the Russian rural population," Lapshin said. He refused to comment on whether the Agrarian Party would consider joining United Russia.
The Agrarian Party was established in 1993 under the leadership of Lapshin. In that year's parliamentary elections the party won nearly 8 percent of the vote, which gave it 21 deputies plus 16 elected in single-mandate constituencies.
In 1995, the party got less than 4 percent of the vote and failed to get into the Duma. Lapshin also was left without a seat. Its 20 single-mandate deputies, however, with help from the Communists, created an Agrarian faction, which was headed by Kharitonov.
Lapshin made it into the Duma in 1998 by winning a by-election. He tried to take over leadership of the Agrarian faction but lost out to Kharitonov.
In 1999, Kharitonov and his group decided to take part in the elections with the Communist Party. The Agrarians who supported Lapshin, however, ran with the Fatherland-All Russia party.
In 2002, Lapshin's Agrarian Party had 41,477 members, according to Justice Ministry figures.
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