| It will not be easy for United Russia to form a stable majority in regional parliaments Yesterday the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections in three Russian regions (Voronezh, Ryazan and Vladimir) became known. Legislative assemblies in all three regions were formed for the first time under a mixed system. Half of the deputies were elected from single-mandate constituencies, and the other half from party lists. The number of voters who came to the polls ranged from 30 to 40%.
In all three regions, elections to legislative assemblies ended in victory for United Russia, for which more than 20% of voters voted everywhere. The honorable second place was shared by the Communists and the Rodina bloc. However, the victory of the party in power is very illusory. The fact is that the 20% of votes received by the United Russia party lists, even taking into account single-mandate seats, will not allow the party in power to become a parliamentary majority in any of the three regional parliaments.
However, the purely arithmetic leadership of United Russia is by no means indisputable - in some cases the Communists are stepping on the heels of the party in power. For example, in the Vladimir region they lagged behind United Russia by only two tenths of a percent - United Russia received 20.55%, and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 20.32% of the votes. If we remember that in the 2003 federal Duma elections, regional United Russia members were ahead of the communists by more than 16%, then it becomes obvious that the party in power has recently found it increasingly difficult to maintain its leading position.
According to the director of the Institute of Regional Problems, Maxim Dianov, the relatively low performance of United Russia in regional elections is the price to pay for the party in power’s support for the monetization of benefits and other social reforms that are unpopular among the population. Even the administrative resource at its full disposal, which Mr. Dianov estimates at 12-15% of the votes, does not always help.
Rodina leader Dmitry Rogozin claims that the administrative resources of local authorities were used against his party, and in addition, representatives of the parliamentary majority campaigned against it. Apparently, Mr. Rogozin was hinting that on the eve of the elections, First Deputy Speaker Lyubov Sliska and several other United Russia deputies visited Voronezh. Representatives of the Ryazan branch of the Rodina party accused the governor of the Ryazan region, Georgy Shpak, of violating the regional law “On the elections of deputies of the Ryazan Regional Duma.” Rodina headquarters claims that Mr. Shpak “visited several polling stations for an unknown purpose,” and on Friday, during a press conference, he publicly admitted his sympathies for the “president’s party.”
Let us recall that Georgy Shpak, who ran in the gubernatorial elections as a member of the Rodina association, became inflamed with love for the party in power after the prosecutor’s office of the Ryazan region opened a criminal case based on the results of checking information about financial violations during his gubernatorial election campaign. However, so far no one has been charged in the governor’s case. But on March 18, on the eve of elections to the regional parliament, Mr. Shpak announced that he had submitted an application to join United Russia.
According to Mr. Rogozin, Rodina came under “unprecedented pressure” during the election campaign in the Ryazan and Voronezh regions. Therefore, even though it was not possible to defeat United Russia in the elections to regional parliaments, he regards the election results as “a definite success.”
In the Ryazan region, United Russia received 22.22% of the votes, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 15.16%, and Rodina - 13% of the votes. At the same time, according to the representative of the regional election commission Lyudmila Krynnik, “all seven parties and blocs that participated in the elections got their candidates into the regional parliament, as they crossed the five percent threshold established in the region.” The “Social Protection and Justice” bloc received 10.76% of the votes, the “For the Ryazan Territory” bloc - 10.09%, the LDPR - 8.93%, the Union of Right Forces - 5.49%.
Both Rodina and United Russia prepared especially carefully for the elections in the Voronezh region. The fact is that for Mr. Rogozin, who was elected to the State Duma precisely from Voronezh, as he himself repeatedly stated, victory would mean “the right for the Rodina party to lead the opposition in the country.”
Apparently, this is why Mr. Rogozin spent the entire pre-election week in Voronezh. The culmination of Rodina’s PR efforts was a rally attended by several thousand of its supporters. The spectacle was very colorful. Rodina activists came to the rally in new lemon-red suits. Just the day before, Mr. Rogozin announced juicy lemon color as the new color of the opposition. However, neither the appeal to the world of fruits nor the intimidating slogans of the protesters asking citizens to choose “Motherland or Death” helped Rodina get ahead of United Russia on Sunday. In the Voronezh region, following the election results, United Russia gained 29.09% of the votes. 21.02% of voters voted for Rodina. Third place went to the communists, who received 13.66% of the votes. In addition to them, the Justice bloc (6.41%) and the Liberal Democratic Party (5.92%) also entered the Voronezh Legislative Assembly. The traditionally favorite candidate “against everyone” among the people received 11.88% of the votes in the region. Ekaterina GORDEEVA, Alexey ZHERNSEKOV, Voronezh |
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