HELPING YELTSIN'S FRIENDS MAKE RUSSIA "SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY" By Laure Akai When Yeltsin called for parliamentary elections to be held on December 12, there was much worry that much would be unfair about the process. After all, anyone who had resorted to such radical measures to rid himself of any opposition, people had supposed, would do everything possible to ensure that the parliament was stacked in his favour. Now that the electoral procedure is being set (albeit they are changing the rules practically every day) it is clear exactly in which manner the elections will be manipulated. The most significant way in which the elections will be manipulated is in the drawing up of districts by the State Electoral Commission. The Commission has been specially charged to analyse the results of the April 26 referendum so that the districts can be concentrated with those who voted against Yeltsin. By making sure that anti-Yeltsin voters will be concentrated into fewer districts, they are doing the most to insure that they have fewer representatives in the new Duma. The election laws state that the size of electoral districts should differ by no more than 15%. However, the State Electoral Comission has drawn up districts ranging in size from 130,000 to 800,000 voters. The largest district created so far, the Amur district near the Chinese border, was strongly anti-Yeltsin in April. The average size of the "anti-Yeltsin" districts works out to 590,000 while the pro-Yeltsin districts are made much smaller and more numerous, averaging 456,000. The fact that the Commission has already broken the laws of the elections is meaningless. Yeltsin has unlimited power to alter the rules of the game at any time. With one swift decree all inconvenient laws become null and void. The districting is just the tip of the iceberg. The proportional counting system set up by the Commission requires that the fractional seats won by the blocs by awarded to the front runner. The government is expecting to gain at least a dozen extra seats in this manner. The elections will not be decided on by the majoritarian principle (that is that at least 50 percent should vote for a candidate for it to be elected). The front runner will take all, as long as 25% of the registered voters turn out at the polls. And finally, of course, access to the media will do much to determine the outcome of the elections. While the government has promised to reimburse all candidates "up to a set limit" for airtime, those parties with more money to spend and with better relations to the media will obviously benefit. Those anti-Yeltsin papers that were not shut down or were allowed to resume publishing have agreed to self- censorship and must have made changes in their editorial staff. The media remains strongly pro-Yeltsin and irresponsible in reporting the news to its readers. The details about the election rules have been published in few papers. While many political groups have denounced the rules of the elections, few have decided to boycott them. It is generally the outlawed groups ho have decided to boycott although no doubt there will be low voter turn out. Under such conditions, no such thing as fair elections can take place. There are choices for voters who would like to register their discontent with the System: either to stay home on election day or choose the "veto" vote, which is a vote for nobody which will be an opinion available on the ballot. But in order for these strategies to make any impact, the voters must be informed on how the elections are being manipulated. Even then there may be chance that few people care. In a political climate where corruption abounds and there is government by decree, there is also much learned powerlessness.