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The Eurasian Politician - Issue 4 (August 2001)
By: Seija Väyrynen, St. Petersburg
End of June in St. Petersburg was a seminar of Liga Izbiratelnits (Voters’ League). To this seminar came participants from many regions of Russia.
Liga Izbiratelnits was founded in St. Petersburg in 1995 and a couple of years later it was registered as an official non-govermental organisation. One of the founders of the organisation was Galina Starovoitova, a Duma member who was shot in St. Petersburg a few years ago.
Organisation’s tasks include assistance to the non-profit organisations in getting themselves organised, assistance to women candidates in elections and human rights protections. Liga Izbiratelnits is also against the war in Chechnya. In elections the organisation does not nominate its own candidate but helps women candidates generally in learning electoral technics, prepares campaign workers and poll watchers. The organisation also oversees how MPs fulfill promises which they gave before elections. In practical level one of the most important tasks of Liga Izbiratelnits is a free legal consultation in which people can ask advices for example how to write complaints. Every year the legal consultation is used by more than 2000 people. International co-operation both with CIS and the West has been in the program already several years.
Today the organisation works not only in St. Petersburg but also many different regions of Russia like Vyborg, Arkangel, Tver and Komi. In many of these region the organisation publishes a newspaper. In some of these region the organisation has already worked many years, in others it has only just registered. One aim of the seminar was to help these new members by sharing experiences. Liga Izbiratelnits differs from many other NGOs by not working in Moscow.
Tatyana Dorutina, the chairman of the organisation, has worked in the organisation since it was founded. She told that there has not been any bigger problems to register despite some of organisation’s views, which are against Kremlin’s politics. According to Dorutina the main idea of Liga Izbiratelnits is to give people a possibility to act and to effect to their own life. Dorutina says that organisations advices are needed because in Russia many people still do not know how NGO should work. Additionally economic problems were familiar to all participants. Many of them also told about the problems in using the internet and e-mail which mean problems in getting information.
The existence of these problems admitted also Svetlana Tchernykh, the teacher who came to the seminar from Komi. She told that at the time of the registration there were only questions without answers. Another problem is the lack of active members. Yelena Mischikina said that people are afraid and because of that they do not want to demand anything from the state.
Liga Izbiratelnits has already got results in its work. In the 1999 Duma elections were more women candidates than what in elections have been before. Despite the fact that the number of women MPs decreased in the State Duma Tatyana Dorutina sees this as a sign that women have started to activate in political life.
Both Dorutina and Tchernykh see the future of the organisation positive. Tchernykh said that in the coming years the organisation will become bigger and start to work in new Russian regions.
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Seija Väyrynen is The Eurasian Politician’s correspondent in St. Petersburg.