#8 - JRL 7285
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
No. 158
August 2003
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
PUBLIC TRUST IN POLITICAL PARTIES GOES DOWN
DRAMATICALLY
By Yekaterina DOBRYNINA
Dmitry Olshansky, a professor at the Centre of Strategic
Analysis and Forecasts, has offered his forecast for the
upcoming parliamentary election in Russia. The outcomes of the
survey the Centre conducted in mid summer show that this next
autumn will see a sort of battle of Borodino in politics. It
will not be a mortal combat between the right-wingers,
centrists and left-wingers, something we have got accustomed
to, but between political liberals and radicals. Liberal
parties look somewhat inferior to radical-minded politicians
who enjoy increasingly wide support of electors this season.
Supporters of "Against All" can make up as much as 12% to 14%
of the electorate, which is several times as much compared to
the previous election.
Professor Olshansky used a point, not percentage-based,
system of assessing political parties. And he used expert data,
rather than opinion surveys results. The professor believes
public opinion surveys are somewhat superficial and inexact. Respondents do not
always understand clearly what they are
being asked about and why.
Fifty experts of the Centre assessed political parties'
activities according to the 10-point system. They separately
assessed the strength of regional party branches, party
headquarters' creative potential, regional branches'
"administrative resource," parties' programmes and ideology,
finances, the ingenuity of their PR campaigns, charisma of
political leaders, the degree of fame and support of electors,
publicity. The team placing winners were the Communist Party,
United Russia and LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia),
while in other nominations winners were different. United
Russia scored extra points for strong party structures.
Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, and the People's
Party, which has gained the lead recently, were hailed for
their regional branches' creative potential. United Russia,
however, receded to the fifth place in this nomination.
As to ideology, the communists are leading the way. Their
programme has been well known for rather a long time, although
few have read the programme's final draft. Yabloko's theses on
the utilities sector reform and SPS' slogan reading "let life
last for ever" can, by no means, be described as ideology.
United Russia is, certainly, better off financially, according
to experts. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky is unmatched in
charisma. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and Communist leader
Gennady Zyuganov follow him in descending order.
Public trust in political parties is critically low as of
today, summed up experts. People's interest in the upcoming
election is not intense either, compared to previous years.
Aug. 12, 2003:
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