Translated material
Orchestra rehearsal
The composition of the future State Duma will be determined in general terms at regional elections
This coming Sunday, October 8, elections of legislative assemblies will be held in nine regions of Russia. In all regions, lists of candidates from the regional branches of three parliamentary parties - United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Liberal Democratic Party - have been registered. A total of ten parties will take part in the elections. They will need to overcome the seven percent threshold set by the regions, the highest limit allowed by federal law. During this campaign, the list of political parties that will compete for seats in the State Duma was more or less determined. The outcome of the October 8 elections could show parties how valid their claims are at the federal level. And the only significant difference between the composition of the federal parliament and those regional ones that will be elected on October 8 will be the very likely presence in the State Duma of a united left party of power, created under the auspices of the Kremlin.Elections to legislative assemblies will be held in Karelia, Novgorod, Lipetsk, Astrakhan region, Chuvashia, Sverdlovsk region, Republic of Tuva, Jewish Autonomous Region and Primorsky Territory. In addition to United Russia, Communists and Liberal Democrats, the Patriots of Russia party participates in the elections of legislative assemblies in eight regions, the Party of Life and Rodina in seven regions, the Russian Party of Pensioners and People's Will in six, and the Democratic Party Russia - in three, Yabloko - in two. This time, the Union of Right Forces and the Agrarian Party are not participating in elections under the proportional system in any of the regions.
In the six months since the previous all-Russian election day (now, by law, there are only two of them a year) - March 12 - the political landscape has changed. The Kremlin project “Rodina Party” was rid of the former leader Dmitry Rogozin, and then completely disposed of, merging with the Party of Life and the Party of Pensioners. At the current elections, these three parties, by law, do not yet have the opportunity to put up a single list, but they promised to coordinate their actions. The result shown by the new party of Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov will become one of the main intrigues of the vote. The second intrigue of the elections is also connected with the Russian Revolutionary Party - throughout the entire campaign, the Party of Life demonstrated a struggle with “United Russia” and its administrative resource with the resource of the “main” party in power. Ultimately, the regional authorities for the most part were able to distribute sympathy between the two pro-government parties.
The turnout threshold in almost all nine regions is 20%. The exception was Tuva, where the threshold for elections of both chambers of the Supreme Khural is 33%, and the Sverdlovsk region with a minimum turnout of 25%.
A mixed picture emerged with the line “against everyone.” The State Duma adopted a law to remove this line from elections at all levels, but since Vladimir Putin signed this law only at the end of July 2006, when elections in almost all regions had already been scheduled for October 8, this time legislators of the constituent entities had the right to decide for themselves the fate of this line. As a result, it was canceled in Karelia, Primorsky Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Region. In other regions it remained, and in the Republic of Tuva there is a line “against all” in elections to the House of Representatives, but not in elections to the lower legislative chamber.
According to the Central Election Commission, United Russia (70 million rubles), the Party of Life and the Russian Party of Pensioners (each - more than 40 million rubles), and the Patriots party managed to collect the most funds for their election fund for legislative elections. Russia" (more than 36 million), as well as "Rodina" and "Narodnaya Volya" (each - more than 30 million rubles).
The parties' range of pre-election funds turned out to be, on the whole, not new. In particular, all parties that can afford it have taken advantage of the “steam locomotive” technology. In eight of the nine regions, the heads of the executive branch of the constituent entities are at the head of the United Russia party list. And the lists of the Narodnaya Volya party, which is participating in legislative elections in six constituent entities, are everywhere headed by its leader Sergei Baburin. It’s just that current legislation allows State Duma deputies to simultaneously run in regional elections. If they win the elections to the regional Duma, they can transfer the mandate to the next candidates on the list. In addition, the Party of Life electoral list in the Lipetsk region is headed by the party leader, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, who also clearly does not intend to become a deputy or even speaker of the Lipetsk Legislative Assembly.
In Lipetsk, the Rodinians decided not to interfere with the Zhiznians and did not put forward their list. At the same time, for example, in the Astrakhan region, the Russian Orthodox Church abandoned the elections in favor of the more promoted Rodina, whose list was headed by State Duma deputy Oleg Shein. In the Lipetsk region, the most discussed news of the campaign was the message about President Vladimir Putin’s permission to use his image and his statements with a positive assessment of the Russian Orthodox Church in the party’s election campaign. The head of United Russia, Chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, who came to Lipetsk in September, advised his colleagues to consider the RPZh as “serious political competitors” and to conduct a “normal political struggle” with them.
However, the Party of Life did not receive such a warm welcome everywhere. In Tuva, the first attack on Mr. Mironov's party came back in August, when the Tuvan office of the Federal Registration Service refused to register the local branch of the RPZh. Later the problem was resolved. However, the Party of Life did not remain among the participants in the Tuvan campaign for long - the registration of its list was canceled by the court at the request of the local branch of the Agrarian Party, whose demands were joined by United Russia. On September 26, the Supreme Court restored the Party of Life list for the elections to the Supreme Khural of Tuva.
By that time, the Supreme Court had already reinstated the Party of Life in the elections in the Sverdlovsk region. The list of RPZh here is headed by State Duma deputy Evgeniy Roizman. Second place on the list was taken by the famous singer Alexander Novikov, whom United Russia was counting on very much, but they were late with the offer - RPZ turned out to be more prompt. At the start of the campaign, experts strongly doubted the alliance’s abilities: Mr. Roizman is popular in Yekaterinburg, but his position in the region is worse; Mr. Novikov has a controversial reputation, which could alienate Yevgeny Roizman, who is popular with women, from his main electorate. But the events of the following weeks made these difficulties unimportant.
Already after the merger of the Russian Workers' Party, the Russian Party of Pensioners and Rodina was announced in Moscow, the Sverdlovsk regional election commission decided to refuse to register the Party of Life's electoral list. The basis was the conclusion of the regional department of the Federal Registration Service about violations during the conference to approve the list. The RPZh immediately accused the regional authorities of machinations, fearful of competition. And party leader Sergei Mironov made an extended comment in which he blamed “United Russia” for everything (in the region its list is headed by Governor Eduard Rossel, and the local party cell is headed by regional Prime Minister Alexey Vorobyov).
As a result, the Supreme Court on September 19 demanded that the Sverdlovsk Regional Election Commission include the Party of Life on the ballot. The scandal played into the hands of the RPZh: in Yekaterinburg, even those who do not like Evgeniy Roizman are now ready to vote for it - simply protesting against administrative pressure, while in the region they simply learned about the existence of such a party. True, there are still contradictions in the united party itself: the last meeting between Evgeny Roizman and the head of the local Rodina, Evgeny Zyablitsev, ended in a brawl: on Wednesday, on the radio broadcast of the Ural branch of VGTRK, Zyablitsev and Roizman each campaigned for their own list and clashed over the issue of monetization of benefits. Evgeny Zyablitsev insisted that he voted against the reform, Mr. Roizman argued that of the Sverdlovsk residents, only he and the communist Nikolai Yezersky did not support the abolition of benefits. “Roizman, as always, is lying,” said Zyablitsev, after which he received several slaps in the face. The presenter shouting “God!” stopped broadcasting. By the way, Alexander Novikov also promises to beat Evgeniy Zyablitsev, who already got into a fight with Rodin on a plane several years ago.
The second original theme of the Sverdlovsk campaign is the disruption of voting. State Duma deputy Anton Bakov suggested that Sverdlovsk pensioners boycott the elections until pensions are increased several times and their size is not directly tied to the size of GDP. Strike committees for pensioners were organized in the vast majority of municipalities. No one can yet predict how successful Anton Bakov’s anti-election campaign will be: in order for the elections in Yekaterinburg to be recognized as valid, it is enough for 25% of the voters on the lists to appear at the polling stations.
At first, the Electoral Commission of the Jewish Autonomous Region did not like the Party of Life either. Of the six candidates included in the electoral list of the Russian Orthodox Church, four submitted an application to leave the list - more than half of the total number, which, by law, leads to the removal of the list. The court, however, found that one of the candidates withdrew from the list for health reasons, so that there were only three who withdrew without a good reason, and this is not enough to apply the “more than half” norm. Official statements from retired candidates stated disagreement with the upcoming unification of the Party of Life with Rodina and the Party of Pensioners.
The registration of the PC list was also contested in the Primorsky Territory. Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in the regional court demanding that the RPZ list be removed from the elections due to, in the plaintiff’s opinion, improper execution of documents submitted for registration. The court rejected the claim at a hearing on September 15. The following week, the same court considered a similar claim by the Liberal Democratic Party to cancel the registration of the list of the Freedom and Democracy party.
Both lists, “Freedom and Democracy”, headed by the former mayor of Vladivostok Viktor Cherepkov, and RPZh, in which the first number is Yuri Privalov, general director of the Primorskoye food association and chairman of the board of directors of the Preobrazhenskaya trawl fleet base (in the recent past, these enterprises were headed by Oleg Kozhemyako, the current governor of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug), look like difficult opponents for Governor Sergei Darkin and for the United Russia list, which he heads. By the way, local United Russia members were issued a warning for violating the rules of campaigning after a complaint from the Russian Workers' Party to the regional election commission: posters and leaflets of United Russia were found that were not paid for from the party's election fund, as well as facts of the use of images of minor children in United Russia campaigning. The list of the Agrarian Party was denied registration in Primorye.
In Chuvashia and Tuva, registration of the lists of the Russian Party of Pensioners, which is competing in these elections, like Rodina, was denied, separately from the new alliance with the Party of Life. The Supreme Court did not restore the list of the Yabloko party in Karelia. The court found justification for the claims against the charter, which the Election Commission of Karelia and the Federal Registration Service considered not too democratic. The representative of the Karelian department of the Federal Reserve System, Tatyana Ignatieva, told the court that her department discovered in the Yabloko charter a contradiction to the law “On Political Parties,” which establishes the equality of party members. We are talking about the rule in the charter, according to which Yabloko simply has “members” and “registered members.” And decisions in Yabloko, as Ms. Ignatieva said, are made by “a small part of the party members.”
Representatives of the party, in turn, reported that the charter was registered on August 9 with the Federal Reserve System, which did not find any contradictions in it. The head of the legal department of the Central Election Commission, Irina Grishina, also took Yabloko’s side, but the Supreme Court was not impressed by this fact. The decision of the Supreme Court, as Yabloko believes, may become a precedent - now the “undemocratic” charter may become a reason for the removal of the party in the State Duma elections.
The Central Election Commission was pleased with the number of parties removed from the elections. “In the elections on March 12, 17 such cases were recorded, but now there are only four,” rejoiced the head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov.
In addition to elections to legislative assemblies, elections to local government bodies will be held on October 8, and mayors of several cities will be elected. In particular, nine candidates are vying for the post of mayor of Petrozavodsk, four of Lipetsk, twenty-one of Samara, and six of Khanty-Mansiysk.
The popularity of the Samara mayor's seat is partly due to the size and economic potential of the city, and partly to the series of scandals that accompanied the election campaign. People from other cities are also vying for the post of mayor of Samara, in particular from Syzran, Tolyatti, as well as Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk and Moscow. Among them are a mechanic, two unemployed people, defrauded shareholders, a journalist, a lawyer, a businessman, officials and the current mayor. The current mayor Georgy Limansky, supported by United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation at the same time, is considered the favorite of the campaign. Popular in the region are the leader of the regional branch of the Russian Orthodox Church Viktor Tarkhov and regional Duma deputies Mikhail Matveev and Vitaly Ilyin. Nevertheless, in Samara they fear that none of the candidates will receive the 50% of votes required to win and a second round will have to be held.