The party is preparing for the first elections with a new leader

On October 12, elections to legislative assemblies will be held in five constituent entities of the Russian Federation. For United Russia, which has traditionally set an election goal of getting a majority of votes in all five constituent entities, the autumn campaign is of particular importance: these are the first elections for United Russia after Vladimir Putin led the party.

On October 12, parliamentary elections will be held in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Chechnya, Kemerovo, Sakhalin and Irkutsk regions. In all regions, four Duma parties will take part in the elections - United Russia, A Just Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Liberal Democratic Party. Of the non-parliamentary parties, the Greens, Patriots of Russia, the People's Union and the Peace and Unity Party (PME), the Agrarian Party put up lists - but each in one or two regions.

As the independent association Golos said in a statement, regulation of the nomination process was “excessive”, and compliance with all conditions established by law “effectively makes it possible to register only candidates nominated by parties represented in the State Duma.” According to association expert Alexander Kynev, now the regional political field has been cleared as much as possible. Therefore, the only intrigue of this election campaign was the results of United Russia. For United Russia, this is the first election after Vladimir Putin led the party. And although the party realizes that it is impossible to lose face, they do not expect sky-high percentages. Secretary of the Presidium of the General Council Vyacheslav Volodin named the usual level for the party - a majority in regional parliaments.

So far, United Russia is absolutely calm only about the elections in Chechnya and the Kemerovo region, where the party is insured by the administrative resources of the regional leaders - Ramzan Kadyrov and Aman Tuleyev. According to Kommersant's information, in Chechnya the party expects a result of 80-90%, and in the Kemerovo region - 75% of the votes on party lists and victory in all 18 single-mandate constituencies.

In the Trans-Baikal Territory, Irkutsk and Sakhalin regions, the party does not expect results higher than in the Duma elections. On Sakhalin, the party expects to get 12 of the 14 single-mandate seats into parliament and receive 55% of the votes on the list. The same bar is set for the list in Transbaikalia, but out of 25 single-mandate constituencies, the party is counting on only 16. From the elections to the parliament of the united Irkutsk region, United Russia expects 60% of the votes on the party list and the victory of 14 single-mandate constituencies out of 25. Note that in Transbaikalia and the Irkutsk region, the farmers who announced a merger with United Russia did not agree to withdraw their lists from the elections.

There was no exemplary campaign in the regions. In the Irkutsk region, on September 28, a local edition of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda - Baikal" was published with the slogan "Putin is our president! Esipovsky is our governor! United Russia is our party!" in the material “My Favorite City,” officially paid for from the election account of the regional branch of United Russia. A scandal arose and the newspaper's circulation was immediately bought up and removed from distribution outlets.

In the Trans-Baikal Territory, the communists appealed to the regional court with a demand to print new ballots due to the fact that the name of “A Just Russia” was printed in capital letters, and “United Russia” was also typed in bold. As the communists argued, this form of ballots gives an advantage to individual parties and, above all, to United Russia. However, the Communist Party court refused. The same dispute took place during the Duma elections regarding United Russia. And then the Central Election Commission explained to the communists that, according to the law, the name of each party must be written in the ballot in accordance with the party charter, and in the United Russia charter the name of the party is written in capital letters.

The television debates, in which United Russia members decided to officially participate for the first time, were also marked by several scandals. In Chechnya, the communists criticized United Russia for supporting the decision of the republican authorities to name one of the Grozny streets after General Gennady Troshev, who died in a plane crash. In the Irkutsk region, the second number on the party list of A Just Russia, Vladimir Matienko, on Channel 23, accused the first deputy prime minister of the regional government, Sergei Sokol, of demanding that Just Russia member Vladimir Tashkinov refuse to participate in the elections so as not to interfere with the candidate from "United Russia" - Deputy Governor for the Forestry Complex Viktor Dolgov. Spravorossy filed this complaint with the prosecutor's office. And in the Kemerovo region it turned out to be difficult for voters to watch the debate at all. They were absent from the programs of the Rossiya TV channel and the Gubernsky TV channel, and only with the help of the debate participants themselves it was possible to find out that the debates air at 11.30, and their duration is only seven minutes.

Kommersant-Politics Department

United Russia members made a mistake for the campaign

United Russia members made a mistake for the campaign