Vote smart Navalny says from jail as Russian parliamentary vote looms

Russians need to vote strategically in upcoming parliamentary elections, opposition leader Alexei Navalny exhorted from prison on Wednesday.

“You absolutely must participate in ‘smart voting,'” said Navalny, referring to a scheme he backs whereby voters do not necessarily cast their ballot for their favourite candidate, but throw their support en masse behind the candidate they see having the best shot of unseating establishment candidates.

Navalny and his supporters have used the strategy to upset the political ambitions of the United Russia party – the majority party of Russia, which supports President Vladimir Putin, even though Putin is not technically its leader.

A survey by opinion pollster FOM shows that 27 per cent of respondents say they plan to vote for United Russia in the September 17-19 polls.

“Before the last vote for the Duma, that was at 44 per cent,” according to the statement by Navalny, which appeared on Instagram.

United Russia is hoping to defend its absolute majority in the legislature.

Members of Navalny’s team say they see a chance to weaken United Russia significantly.

“We can do it. There are more of us,” said Vladimir Milov, an associate of Navalny’s, in a Youtube message on Tuesday. “The party of the hustlers and thieves has hit an historic low in its popularity.”

But Navalny and his associates have been branded extremists by Russian courts, meaning they can’t run, which adds to the urgency of their message calling on voters to pick anyone but United Russia.

The team is poised to create an app that will give concrete recommendations about candidates and hopes to release it shortly before voting begins.

“We have to minimize the results for United Russia, which means that everyone has to vote for every party that can get past the 5-per-cent hurdle” necessary for parties to be represented in the Duma, another Navalny colleague, Leonid Volkov, recently told website meduza.io in an interview.

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