On Memorial Society's participation in 2003 election campaign

On November 7, 2003, the Board of the Memorial Society made an appeal to the Society's regional organizations, stating their stance concerning the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the county.

The stance itself in the appeal is preceded by two reservations:

1. The Memorial Society is not a political party. Therefore, the Board's opinion about its stance in the elections is not more than just a recommendation for activists and members of the Society.

2. The Memorial Society is a union of independent regional organizations. Therefore, each organization has a right to take its own stance on the elections, which may differ from the Board's one.

Here is the unified stance of the Society's Board concerning the forthcoming elections:

1. We think that the social and political situation in the county is rapidly developing in the extremely dangerous direction. The executive authority is trying to dominate in all fields of public life, to suppress or, at least, violently control independent initiatives - political, economic, civil, and social ones.

Under such conditions, we believe we must diverge from our traditional non-intervention in politics. Today we find it necessary to call upon you to do more than NOT GIVE your votes to one or another political party but  SUPPORT those few parties whose parliamentary activity show their adherence to the ideas of law and freedom.

2. We analyzed the course of debates and votes in the Duma for the last four years, choosing those bills that we considered to be of fundamental importance for the development of democracy and civil society in Russia.

As it turned out, deputies of only two political parties - Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces (SPS) - show such a position on these issues which is more or less consistent.

Hence, we think those who want Russia to become a free and democratic county must see their civic duty in seconding one of the two parties: Yabloko or SPS, when voting for party lists.

We by no means idealize either political platforms or leaders of these two parties. But when you decide which party list to vote for, you should remember you give your vote to an entire party not to a concrete person. It means you take political choice between political conceptions and not between individuals.

3. The question of voting in single-mandate constituencies is a much more complicated one. We also call upon you to vote, within the limits of the possible, for candidates nominated or supported by SPS and Yabloko. But our appeal to you to vote for candidates nominated in your single-mandate constituencies by Yabloko and SPS should be supplemented with a reservation: "apart from those cases when you have information that allow you to be confident these candidates are unworthy to be elected."

On the other hand, there most probably are quite worthy people among the candidates in single-mandate constituencies who nominated by the other parties and election blocs. But you should be aware that having become parliamentarians, they will be obliged for the most part to vote obeying their party's or faction's discipline. So we would not recommend that you second in the single-mandate constituency elections candidates for United Russia, the Russian Communist Party and the other parties whose ideological platform or political practice does not accord with democratic values, no matter how kindly you treat these candidates as individuals and no matter how high opinion you have of them. If you do not find it possible to vote for a specific single-mandate candidate for Yabloko or SPS, we would advise you to look closely at the independent candidates nominated in your constituencies. There are often quite decent and intelligent people among them.

4. All stated above concerns only one aspect of the elections - the election day.

Regional bodies of the Society are not bound to show any activity in the election campaign.

If a regional Memorial organization decides to participate in it, it must choose forms of this participation on its own.

At the same time, if you decide that your organization will actively support some political forces (just in the capacity of an organization), you have to trace any violations of the law in your capacity of human rights activists, no matter who these violations are aimed against.

We have no special illusions about the general results of these elections. There are serious reasons to apprehend we will get an even more controlled parliament for a more controlled "democracy". And nevertheless, we should like to hope for the best. We must, anyhow, have a right to say to ourselves under any outcome, "We did everything we could."