| Arkhangelsk and Ryazan elect governors On Sunday, the second round of gubernatorial elections will be held in the Ryazan and Arkhangelsk regions. To win, candidates only need a simple majority of votes. Moreover, in both regions, it is quite possible that there will be a change of power, which will confirm the emerging trend of voters becoming “tired” of the current regional leaders who have been in office for a long time.
The sensation of the first round of local elections in Ryazan was the defeat of the current red governor Vyacheslav Lyubimov. Having collected 21.12% of the votes, he lost the battlefield to the former commander of the Airborne Forces, State Duma deputy from the Rodina bloc Georgy Shpak with 23.73% of the votes and State Duma deputy, United Russia member of the first conscription, in the recent past, senator from the Ryazan legislative corps Igor Morozov, who received 28.96% of the votes.
In the first round, Governor Lyubimov was supported by the structurally strong regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In the second round, the “communist voters,” it is believed, will go to Mr. Shpak. At the same time, the Ryazan United Russia has a large advertising and media resource, and the fact that by the second round it finally decided to support Igor Morozov can greatly influence the outcome of the vote. According to the head of the Agency for Applied and Regional Policy Valery Khomyakov, expressed to the Vremya Novostei newspaper, it is Igor Morozov who has a better chance of winning: “He has secured the support of the Kremlin, and the people of Ryazan know about it. And since Ryazan considers itself a distant suburb of Moscow, support from there is of great importance. Large regional centers of the region will most likely vote for Morozov. And Shpak will receive support from the communist electorate, although the local branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will not officially support him.”
Also in favor of United Russia, according to analysts, is the fact that the military is not successful in regional elections, since there is practically no successful experience of “governor-general” in Russia.
In the Arkhangelsk region, the alternative to the current governor Anatoly Efremov in the second round will be the general director of OJSC Milk, who sympathizes with United Russia, Nikolai Kiselev, who unites the entire “multi-system opposition” of the region. It is he who, according to rumors, is indirectly supported by the federal center. In the first round, Nikolai Kiselev received 44.95% of the votes, and Anatoly Efremov only 26.45%.
The explosion in Arkhangelsk that occurred immediately after the first round of elections will most likely have a negative impact on the rating of the current regional governor. On March 22, the head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, called on participants in the gubernatorial elections “not to promote their interests on the tragedy that occurred in the city.” And against the backdrop of the activity of the current head, many people think the “silence” of Nikolai Kiselev, who completely stopped campaigning in Arkhangelsk for a week, is more ethical and politically correct. On the other hand, in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the head of the Foris research company, Vadim Treskin, suggested that it is not so much the explosion in Arkhangelsk as simple dissatisfaction with the current government that will lead 35-40% of the region's residents to the polls.
According to the director of the Institute of Regional Problems, Maxim Dianov, all three forms of protest voting effectively work against Mr. Efremov: failure to appear at the elections, voting against everyone, and demonstrative support for his rival, businessman Kiselyov. Daria GUSEVA |
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