"Volga" in exchange for a newsletter

Yakut voter is being lured

The second round of voting in the presidential elections in Yakutia will take place on Sunday. And this should end the most scandalous election campaign in the history of regional elections, famous for the fact that the courts have deprived candidates of registration countless times and then restored it again. However, Sunday's voting in Yakutia could lead to a new wave of legal proceedings, and the republic will be left without a new president. If less than 50% of voters take part in the voting, then, as the chairman of the Central Election Commission of the republic, Vladimir Mikhailov, warned members of election commissions yesterday, the election results could be annulled. According to him, as Interfax reports from Yakutsk, republican legislation legally incorrectly defines the turnout threshold at 35%. Therefore, those who disagree with the result may well protest the results and have them annulled. Only a turnout of 50% of voters will guarantee the legitimacy of the elections and the new president.

Today, all election commissions and local authorities of Yakutia are racking their brains over how to once again attract the residents of the republic, who disciplinedly fulfilled their civic duty on December 23, to the ballot boxes. Moreover, for the head of ALROSA, Vyacheslav Shtyrov, who received 45.5% of the votes in the first round, complacency or laziness of voters is even more dangerous than for his rival, the head of the financial and industrial group Sapi, Fedot Tumusov, for whom 17% of voters voted. Because, as the correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper was told at Mr. Shtyrov’s headquarters, their enemy’s side is mainly the indigenous population, since Mr. Tumusov is a Yakut, and “representatives of the titular nation in Yakutia, despite the minority, are much more united and more organized than the Russians.”

In Yakutsk, it was decided to once again attract voters using a lottery, despite the fact that the republic's prosecutor's office opened a case against the organizers of such an event during the December vote. And there seems to be a sober calculation in this: until the prosecutor’s office sorts it out and the court considers the case, the elections will take place. And the new president will probably find a way to protect those who break the law. And the lottery is conceived to be significant: the prize fund is 1 million rubles, 100 prizes will be drawn, including televisions, washing machines, stereo systems, microwave ovens and even one Volga. However, those who do not win anything will not lose anything either, since absolutely everyone who comes to the polling stations receives two coupons for a discount of 150 rubles. for payment of utilities and for receiving food packages. The set, consisting of 1 liter of vegetable oil, condensed milk and chicken, will, however, have to be purchased with your own money, but it will be cheap, without a trade markup.

Natalia GORODETSKAYA