| United Russia lost the elections to the Amur parliament The results of the elections to the Council of People's Deputies of the Amur Region, held last Sunday, became a real sensation. For the first time since its creation, United Russia lost elections to the regional parliament based on the results of voting on party lists. But the Union of Right Forces received a record number of votes in the entire history of regional elections in which the party participated.
According to the election results, the electoral bloc “We are for the development of the Amur Region” is in the lead, receiving 17.7% of the votes. United Russia, which received 16.17% of the votes, could only take second place. The third and fourth places are occupied by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Union of Right Forces, which received 13.2% and 12.85%, respectively.
However, all is not lost for United Russia. The elections of the Amur parliament were held according to a mixed system. 18 deputy mandates will be given to candidates running on party lists, and another 18 will go to leaders based on voting results in two-mandate majoritarian districts. So United Russia mandate holders can still correct the situation and provide their party with a majority of seats in the regional parliament.
In the meantime, United Russia is experiencing the bitterness of defeat. Of course, as a result of the position taken by the party in power on the issue of monetization, its popularity among voters decreased, which could not but affect the results of regional elections. However, United Russia, with the help of administrative resources, estimated by political scientists at 12-15% of the votes, still managed to maintain its leading position. Before the Amur precedent, the main failure of United Russia was considered to be the results of the elections held on February 6 of this year in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where the number of “listed” seats for United Russia representatives turned out to be equal to the communists. However, the situation was corrected by the results of voting in single-mandate constituencies, and as a result, United Russia still won the majority of seats in the NAO parliament.
As for the Amur United Russia members, they blame the local governor Leonid Korotkov for their failures. The representative of the central executive committee of United Russia, State Duma deputy Vladimir Medinsky, for example, believes: “Our party was unable to find mutual understanding with the regional administration, whose governor was represented by the president to the regional council. In fact, we worked in opposition to the current government.”
Such an attack against Amur Governor Leonid Korotkov, who was recently reappointed by the Russian President, is explained by the recent increase in conflicts between him and regional legislators regarding the implementation of the monetization of benefits in the region. The legislative and executive powers tried to shift responsibility for what was happening to their partner. It must be admitted that the governor won a temporary victory in this fight, directing popular anger towards United Russia. And feeling that he might be left without the support of legislators, he preferred to enlist the support of the bloc “We are for the development of the Amur Region” created shortly before the elections by the Russian Party of Life and the Yabloko party.
By the way, the favorite in the elections to the regional council was almost removed from the elections. Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Russia invalidated the regional court’s March 20 decision to cancel the block’s registration. The claim was filed by the communists - they were not satisfied with the name of the competing political association, since there already existed a public organization “For the Development of the Amur Region”. Ekaterina GORDEEVA |
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