Position of the United Communist Party of Russia (OKP) on the 2018 presidential election in Russia
Feb. 12, 2018
Resolution of the Vth (XIII) Plenum of the Central Committee of the OKP
The campaign for the upcoming presidential election in Russia, despite observing all the formal attributes, has not the slightest relation to a democratic process. The real presidential elections are held not at the polling stations, but in closed-door negotiations between influential bureaucratic-oligarchic clans. This is how the head of the current political regime — super-centralized, devastating to people, corrupt from bottom to top — is determined.
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Declaring the possibility of their victory, the candidates from the “opposition” parties (who in fact secretly swear allegiance to the regime), frankly deceive the workers. There is no doubt that they are aware that they are doomed to a humiliating defeat.
For us, participation in such “elections” can have only one goal – using the election campaign to promote our program and demands, strengthen our organizing, and increase the recognition and popularity of the party. The OKP was ready to nominate its candidate, but was deprived of this opportunity by the repeated refusal of the Ministry of Justice to register the party. The candidate nominated by the friendly party ROT Front, who formally applied to the OKP for support at the stage of collecting signatures, is unfortunately not included on the final ballot.
The registered candidates approved by the CEC for the presidential post have no relationship to the United Communist Party, and are not bound to it by any obligations.
The Plenum of the Central Committee of the OKP considers the “elections of 2018” to be a sham and a farce. The Communists will use the electoral campaign to expose the anti-democratic nature of the Russian political system.
Join the OKP! Together with us, fight the power of capital. Work among the masses to explain that hopes for a “good master,” who wins the elections and suddenly corrects everything, are naïve and in vain.
Only the social upsurge and activity of the residents of the country will wrest the power from the millionaires and give it to the millions!
V. Lakeev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the OKP
Translated by Greg Butterfield
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