Dress rehearsal for Russian parliamentary elections to start Sunday

Moscow, Mar 9 (UNI) Dress rehearsal for the 2007 parliamentary elections will start on Sunday in 14 regions in which 30 million voters will cast their ballots in the polls for regional legislatures, the chair man of the Russian Central Election Commission Alexander Veshnyakov today said.

Russia will hold parliamentary elections in October in the wake of amendments to electoral legislation and the law on political parties, which raised the vote threshold for the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, and considerably increased membership requirements for parties, respectively.

Fourteen parties will take part in the elections for legislatures, with the number of party lists varying from five (in the Vologda Region) to eight (the Oryol and Tomsk regions).

Veshnyakov told presspersons that although the Central Election Commission was satisfied with the election campaign in the regions, a number of violations had been registered in some regions.

In order to cut election expenses and ease the burden on the population, since 2004, elections in Russia have been held on two days during election years - on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in October - instead of once every three months.

UNI