Russian billionaire and political hopeful Mikhail Prokhorov launched an online vote on Thursday for a shortlist of titles for his nascent political party.
As of Thursday, the leader among 86 proposals was the straightforward New Russia, followed by Yo-Party – a pun on Prokhorov-backed Yo-mobile, the project to build Russia’s first hybrid car – Democratic Party of Russia and Russia 2.0.
“The title should reflect the spirit and the essence of our enterprise," Prokhorov wrote on his blog on Thursday. "We really want to create a new type of party, a living structure for the people, not another party of power, feed rack or fake.”
He said he is undecided on his own preferred option and would not name his best picks to avoid “leaderism.”
The vote will produce ten best options, with a final decision to be made by the poll’s organizing committee, which will comprise the upcoming party’s high-profile supporters, Kommersant daily said.
The 86 proposals were the most popular among the 45,000 submissions, Prokhorov said. Items that also made it to the poll include Freedom, Wind of Change and White Party, as well as Active, Advanced, Effective, Free, Future, Great, Happy, Modern, Real, Rich, Right, Smart, Strong, Successful, Working and Young Russia.
Prokhorov, 46, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at $18 billion, had his first stint in politics last year when he briefly headed the pro-Kremlin liberal Right Cause, but was ousted by party bureaucrats in what he said was a Kremlin-orchestrated coup to punish him for his independence.
He ran in the presidential elections on March 4, coming third with almost eight percent of the vote, and attended subsequent opposition rallies in Moscow where protesters denounced the vote as rigged.
