The heavy hitters entered the field at the very last moment: on the final day of candidate registration for the Coordination Council elections, applications were submitted by Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ksenia Sobchak, Rustem Adagamov, and various other celebrities. They even put together a joint political platform to run on. Honestly, both the quality and the number of candidates exceeded expectations. The competition is extremely tough, and the number of well-known figures clearly exceeds the number of seats likely to be won. (if you want, check out my video about the Coordination Council elections, recorded especially for LiveJournal)
http://youtu.be/ByyWGR1D43Q I took a close look at the list of candidates and realized this: if this were a party tomorrow, it could immediately challenge "United Russia" (the ruling pro-Kremlin party) and, even without any administrative leverage, would win around 30% in just about any election. If you doubt it, take a look at the federal political council of any party that calls itself opposition, and compare. But of course this is not a party—people there have very different ideological views. What it is, though, is a genuine Popular Front, in the real sense of the term, not Putin’s version. It’s that very opposition unity people have wanted for so long. A union created to organize and take part in a democratic procedure—elections. And that’s what makes it great: the contenders don’t automatically become "leaders"; they also have to compete for votes. Our votes. No one else but us should decide what the opposition is, what we want it to look like, what it should do, and what its ideological spectrum should be. Want more Sobchak with her "constructive and positive" line? Vote. Don’t want Sobchak, want hardcore action and police vans set on fire? Vote. Want more leftists? Vote. Want fewer leftists and more right-wingers? Vote. Want to "drive out all this creative intelligentsia"? Go ahead—vote. Want less "politicking" and more "civic activists"? Vote. Like Navalny? Vote. Don’t like Navalny? There are plenty of candidates running on a platform of "I don’t like Navalny"—vote. Want business involved? Look, Vinokurov is running (and he’s not the only one)—vote. There are candidates for every taste. And they all want one thing: your (our) support. In effect, these are the first fair elections we can actually take part in. In effect, this is the first time each of us can truly influence the formation of a political force. Look at any party congress. How many people there actually make decisions, draw up the lists, and so on? 50. Maybe 100. Some strange delegates from mythical "regional party conferences" that everyone knows were never actually held. At best, only Muscovites had any real chance to participate directly in politics. In Moscow, you can physically go to a rally or some meeting. But in a city like Yekaterinburg, with a population of a million and a lively local political scene, people could only watch sadly as Muscovites, at yet another little insiders’ get-together, "formed the opposition." Not to mention places like Oryol or Vologda. In these elections, everyone has a voice. And to express support for one candidate or another and for their ideas, we do not need intermediaries in the form of party bodies, apparatus, authorized representatives, delegates, and so on. We ourselves will choose the people who will form the Opposition Coordination Council, and it is precisely the elected CC—not some self-appointed political figures—that will decide important issues on the political agenda: from setting dates and formats for protest actions to recognizing people as political prisoners and supporting candidates in elections. There will be plenty to do—it’s not the State Duma, where they just keep switching winter time back and forth. Of course, this is only the beginning of a very difficult process. Getting these 45 people to work together so that it doesn’t all turn into empty talk, fall apart, or split—as has happened every time before. But in any case, we will know that no one but ourselves is responsible for the people sitting on the CC. Whether they just talk and scandalize, or actually work and unite people. We will elect them, and then re-elect them (or not). The Kremlin crooks will do everything they can to disrupt the process. The Central Election Committee website has already been hit by DDoS attacks. We’ll also see attempts to sabotage the debates. We’ll hear a fresh round of whining from those who were too afraid to run in the elections because they thought they should be guaranteed a place "among the leaders" no matter what, and so on. Well, great. That’s real political life. It’s interesting. Every one of us who takes an active civic position, shares responsibility for what is happening in the country, and wants to change something should register for these elections and vote. You don’t want others deciding for you, do you? Voting is on October 20–21. Register right now.
Already 19,000 people have completed the initial registration, and 11,000 have completed the full process, but we haven’t even begun the major registration support campaign yet. Your vote matters. It matters to me, just as it does to every candidate. I’m asking everyone who supports my work to register as well, and then vote. By the way, people from RosPil, RosYama, the Democratic Choice movement, and our other projects are also running. It would be great if you supported them too. Until October 21, you’re going to be terrorized by campaign posts. Registration is already open. Below are detailed registration instructions. To prevent bots and fraud, we’ve had to make the registration methods more complicated. Even so, some of them won’t take more than 10 minutes of your time. Registering as a voter involves 2 steps: Registration itself Identity confirmation, or verification Step one: registration Go to the election website http://election.cvk2012.org
Click the big blue "Register" button, and you’ll be taken to the voter registration form election.cvk2012.org/account/signup
Here you need to enter your full name, year of birth, and phone number. Then click that same "Register" button. Next, a phone verification form will appear. You will receive an SMS on your mobile phone saying something like "One-time password: XXXX," which you need to enter in the designated field and click "Verify"
The "Receive updates" checkbox means you’ll get a reminder when voting itself begins. You are now a registered voter. To confirm this, you will receive an SMS with an identifier in the format xxx-xxx. This is your password for your voter account, and you will also use this same identifier to vote. So you need to save this text message. Better yet, write down and keep this identifier until the end of the election. The first stage of registration is complete. It’s important to have as many voters as possible, so be sure to tell your friends, colleagues, boss and business partners, classmates, and fellow students. So definitely click "Like," "Tweet," and spread the word.
Step two: identity confirmation, or verification: You will need this if you want to vote online. If you don’t, just come on the 20th or 21st to a local election committee office (their number is constantly growing) with your passport and vote. If you don’t want to go anywhere, there are currently two verification methods—via a micro-payment or via a photo with your passport.
If you accidentally log out of your voter account, just log back in through election.cvk2012.org by clicking "Log in" and entering your phone number and identifier code
1. Verify via micro-payment: In your voter account, click "Through a bank"
The micro-payment details and a secret amount will appear:
There is a button here to print out these payment details and take them to a bank, or you can simply send the payment through online banking. Why is this necessary? When you opened the bank account you’ll be paying from, your passport was checked. Or, if you go to a bank to make this payment, your passport will be checked there. Under the law, a payment from one individual to another must include the payer’s full name. This confirms that you are not a bot and that you did not register under a different name using another phone number. IMPORTANT: Some banks do not accept amounts under 10 rubles, or the transfer fee may be several times larger than the payment itself. In that case, you can send 10, 50, or 100 rubles more—the main thing is that the last 3 digits of the payment amount match the secret amount. For example, if your secret amount is 1.23 rubles, you can pay 11.23, 21.23, 351.23 rubles, and so on. The money from verification payments will go toward organizing, promoting, and technically supporting the elections. If the bank does not accept the payment, ask why. Sometimes it is enough to slightly change the payment description. The main thing is that the last three digits of the amount match the secret amount shown in your account, and that the payment reaches the recipient. When the payment reaches the recipient’s account (just in case, keep the receipt), it will be processed automatically by the system, and a note confirming successful verification will appear in your personal account. 2. Verify via a photo with your passport Take a photo of yourself holding your passport so that it complies with clause 6.5(c) of the Voter Registration Procedure http://www.cvk2012.org/dokumenty/poryadok_registracii_i_golosovaniya_izbiratelej/ :: a clear photograph of the voter holding an open passport at the first spread next to their face, so that the voter’s face can be compared with the passport photo. Transfer this photo to your computer (the file must be under 2 megabytes; if it is larger, you need to reduce the photo size http://yandex.ru/yandsearch?text=как+уменьшить+фото )) and go to your personal account (see above for HOW). In your personal account, click the corresponding button:
You will see the photo upload form
Enter your full name, date of birth, and phone number (they ask for them again because they are not stored), select the file with this photo, and click "Submit." Your photo will be received by an operator, who will compare your face with the photo, compare the passport data with the information you entered, and if everything matches, will mark your voter account as verified. After verification (no matter which method you use), you will be able to vote by any available method—online, at a local election committee office, or at a polling station specially set up for the election days. If you registered but did not complete verification by October 18, you will not be able to vote through the website—you’ll still have to go somewhere in person. CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ALL THE WAY TO THE END, WHICH HONESTLY SURPRISES ME A LOT, AND AT THE SAME TIME DEMONSTRATES YOUR STAMINA AND PERSISTENCE IN THE STRUGGLE. The registration itself will take no more time than reading these instructions. Register already.