January 27, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 17, 1429

MOSCOW, Jan 26: Russia’s Communist Party leader on Saturday called on the Kremlin to ensure a fair election and said President Vladimir Putin’s chosen candidate was dominating air time on state television.

Veteran Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov is the main opposition contender to Putin’s favourite, Dmitry Medvedev, who is set to win a sweeping victory in the March 2 election.

Zyuganov said Russia’s main television stations, which are mostly dominated by the state, were giving too much air time to Medvedev and not enough time to discussion with other parties.

But he dismissed speculation that he would pull out of the elections, a move that could leave Medvedev competing against a firebrand nationalist and another obscure candidate.

“I will go to the end,” Zyuganov told reporters at a party rally in Moscow. “There are forces that are trying to undermine the election campaign and push it into a dead end.”

“We have warned the authorities that if they steal votes from the ballot box and steal the right to discuss this on television then they will have to answer for these elections.”

The Kremlin is keen that the election is perceived as fair after international observers said last year’s parliamentary vote was skewed by interference from the authorities.

Officials deny any bias and say they are committed to holding a free and fair election.

But Zyuganov said the race was being sterilised by a lack of debate and compared it to the campaign to the United States, where Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama have been competing to become the Democratic Party’s nominee in a November election.

“We need normal dialogue every day I see how the election campaign in America is going, how Hilary Clinton and Obama are competing, but I don’t see anything on our television screens about the real discussion of the problems,” he said.

Some analysts speculate that Zyuganov, who has lost presidential elections against both Putin and former President Boris Yeltsin, is concerned that a weak showing could leave him vulnerable to a challenge for the party leadership.—Reuters