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.
"Elections on March 11 would be a kind of general rehearsal for the federal-level elections we will have late this year," Alexander Veshnyakov said, adding that parties were actively campaigning in the regions.
Seven of 14 regions to hold elections have finished registering parties running for the legislatures. Four parties - the pro-Kremlin United Russia, the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), and the new populist mergers A Just Russia and Patriots of Russia - have successfully registered in those regions.
The Communist Party, which still enjoys substantial backing in some regions and won 18.3% of the State Duma vote in 2003, has for the first time in its history had its party lists stricken off the ballots in the Tyumen Region in Siberia.
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS, popular in the turbulent post-Soviet years, was also denied registration in Dagestan, but is doing well in the other regions.
The Communists and experts have suggested that authorities were thereby clearing the way for A Just Russia, widely seen as a Kremlin project designed to poach votes from leftist forces, media reports said.
Other parties, including the liberal Yabloko and Agrarian Party, are only campaigning in several regions.
On Saturday, Yabloko was barred from running for parliament in St. Petersburg for presenting fake signatures in support of the party's campaign. Yabloko's leader in St. Petersburg said the decision was political and was aimed at removing the opposition.
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, as before. This was done to cut election expenses and ease the burden on the population.
