Russian city approves fair election protest
January 31st, 2012 - 11:07 am ICT by IANSMoscow, Jan 31 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia’s St. Petersburg city government Monday approved staging of a demonstration Feb 4 for seeking a fair presidential vote.
The authorities approved the opposition’s request to gather up to 30,000 people for a march in the city centre, said Maxim Reznik, a deputy with the liberal Yabloko party in St. Petersburg’s parliament.
Allegations of vote rigging in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party at the last month’s parliamentary elections sparked the biggest anti-government protests in Russia in decades.
Putin, widely seen as the favourite in the March 4 presidential vote, has himself called for fair and transparent elections, and is overseeing a plan to install web cameras at all of Russia’s polling stations to prevent fraud.
Earlier, Moscow authorities had given the go-ahead to a 50,000-strong march through part of the city Feb 4, declared by opposition leaders as a nationwide day of protest.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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