The Nizhny Novgorod Election Commission is waiting for applications to register candidates for the Legislative Assembly

Preparations for the March elections to the legislative assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region are entering the final stage. The main political forces in the region approved the final lists of candidates and announced their expectations for the number of votes. Experts do not predict a tense election campaign, noting that the main feature of these elections will be the struggle between United Russia members, who received the support of the governor, and their former party members, who, having lost the primaries, joined other political associations.

Most of the parliamentary parties represented in the region approved their final election lists at conferences at the end of December. As expected, the leaders of the regional part of the United Russia list were Governor Valery Shantsev, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly Viktor Lunin and State Duma Deputy Olga Noskova. The top three on the Communist Party list in the elections will be represented by State Duma deputy Nikolai Ryabov, leader of the communist faction in the regional parliament Vladislav Egorov and head of OJSC Concern Termal Vladimir Bulanov. The LDPR nominated the head of the party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the coordinator of the LDPR NRO, Alexander Kurdyumov, and the deputy of the legislative assembly, Yuri Startsev, to the regional part of the list. A Just Russia noted that the election list has not yet been approved, but this will happen in the next few days. According to unofficial information, the list will be headed by the leader of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the party, Alexander Bochkarev.

As Stanislav Bisin, chairman of the election commission of the Nizhny Novgorod region, told Kommersant, so far none of the party members have provided documents to the election commission to register their candidates. Potential election participants have a little more than two weeks to do this: the election commission will complete registration on January 28.

At the same time, political associations do not hide their ambitions. Representatives of United Russia have already reported that they intend to receive at least 60% of the votes of Nizhny Novgorod residents. The regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is counting on the support of at least 35% of voters. The LDPR's expectations are no less optimistic - 25% of the vote, while A Just Russia is preparing to receive 15%.

Assessing the prospects for the upcoming campaign, Vladislav Egorov points to the administrative resource, “which will definitely be involved”: “Since December, there has been powerful pressure on our candidates both from the leadership of the districts and from the enterprises where either our candidates or members of their families work. They have conversations with them, from which it becomes clear that if they go to the elections as candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, they will lose their jobs. But despite this pressure, not a single one of our candidates refused to participate in the elections. We have a ready list for registration with the election commission, just to avoid possible provocations, in particular the removal of our candidates from the elections, we check all documents as carefully as possible,” Vladislav Egorov told Kommersant. “We haven’t felt pressure, and there are no conflicts yet. But the campaign will be intense, not ideologically, but organizationally. Discussions in the public space are not expected, and this is depressing, since in return they will be fought behind the scenes,” noted Galina Klochkova, a member of the A Just Russia party, in turn.

Kirov party members agreed on lists

Political scientists, on the contrary, do not believe that the March campaign will be tense. “The elections to the city duma were much more interesting, since there were two centers of influence: the then mayor Vadim Bulavinov and governor Valery Shantsev. Now everything will be as the governor wants - there is no opposition. No one intends to spend money on campaigning either—everything will be done on a massive scale, in the name of the party,” says political observer Valentina Buzmakova. Political scientist Andrei Dakhin adds that the predicted conflict-free pace of the election race does not benefit its participants: “There is no obvious public intrigue. And in order to achieve the stated results, all parties need to stir up voters’ interest in the elections. This will require serious creativity from the parties.” The fight for a specific indicator, according to political scientist Sergei Kocherov, will be fought only by United Russia members, while everyone else “simply voiced the desired result.” According to the expert, the main feature of the upcoming elections will be the confrontation between United Russia members and their former party members who lost the primaries and joined political opponents. “A struggle between the first composition of United Russia and the second,” according to the political scientist, should be expected, for example, in electoral district No. 9, in which United Russia nominated the director of the NIIIS named after. Yu. E. Sedakov Andrey Sedakov, and the communists - former United Russia businessman Alexander Kuznetsov.

Elizaveta Zubakina

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