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Chessmaster Kasparov Boycott urges Russian election boycott

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  • Chessmaster Kasparov Boycott urges Russian election boycott

    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

    Russia-politics-elections-Kasparov
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