'Vote For Us And You Will Never Have To Vote Again'

In 1995 on Radio 4's 'From Our Own Correspondent'
I heard the curious phrase 'Vote for us and you will
never have to vote again'. For years I could not find out
who said it, the context, or even where the phrase
was said. Friends said that I had misheard the quote.
It was said by the figure throwing water over his
opponent here, Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946-2022).
A few seconds later in the same clip Zhirinovsky
would hurl the glass the water was in at his 
 opponent, Boris Nemtsov, as well.    

 

   

It was said in the 1995 Russian elections by
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the far right
Liberal Democrat party amid the Russian state
failing so badly in so many areas of government
that the whole country felt safer with seeing 
Boris Yeltsin being drunk than if he was sober.    

These three stills are from the end of episode six 
of the splendid BBC series 'Trauma Zone; Russia
 1985-1999; what it felt like to live through 
the Collapse of Communism and Democracy.'.
A seven part BBC documentary created by
Adam Curtis. It was released in October 2022.
It can now be found on youtube and is best viewed
slowly, the accretion of all the details of disasters       
and corruption amid the chaos is quite mind bending.
The full quote runs 'Make one last effort, help us,
and you will never have to vote again. These will be
the last elections. The Last.' In a way Zhirinovsky 
was right, no Russian election since 1995 could be
said after that to be 'fair and honestly fought'. 
Thank Adam Curtis for restoring my memory.