Democratic parties nominated a common list of candidates for the State Council

The Tatarstan opposition is uniting efforts to conduct an election campaign for the State Council of the republic. Over the weekend, Yabloko approved a list of candidates, which included supporters of RPR-PARNAS, former members of this party. Parnas will not nominate its own candidates. The parties hope that in this way they will be able to “consolidate the democratic electorate” of the republic, which is estimated at 10%. Experts believe that “given the administrative resources” the coalition will not have “a special effect.”

Last Sunday, a conference of the Tatarstan branch of Yabloko took place in Kazan, at which delegates approved lists of candidates for the upcoming elections to the State Council of the republic on September 14. As the chairman of the department, Ruslan Zinatullin, told Kommersant, seven people were nominated for a single constituency, the party list was headed by Mr. Zinatullin himself, the second number was ex-State Council deputy Dmitry Fomin. The “troika” is closed by the head of the public fund for supporting the Lake Kharovoe ecopark, Nazilya Almasheva, who achieved the cancellation of the development of the Kazan reservoir.

Among the nominees were also former members of RPR-PARNAS, entrepreneur Ilya Novikov and a specialist from the Kazan Youth Center named after. Gaidar Emil Garayev. On June 1, they left the party of Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Kasyanov, concluding a special “political memorandum” with Yabloko. The head of the RPR-PARNAS department, Marcel Shamsutdinov, explained this to Kommersant by saying that the party will not nominate its own candidates. Since “the State Duma has obliged to collect parties (with the exception of those in the Duma and Yabloko.—Kommersant),” RPR-PARNAS will support Yabloko nominees in Tatarstan. “We decided to go to the elections as a single coalition. This will allow us to combine the resources of democratic forces in Tatarstan. The main thing for us is that decent people come to the State Council who will protect the interests of citizens, and not just obediently press buttons,” emphasized Mr. Shamsutdinov. Ruslan Zinatullin expects that with the help of other parties, Yabloko will be able to “consolidate the democratic electorate,” which he estimates in the republic at 10-15%. “We were often reproached that Yabloko did not want to unite with anyone, although we were always ready for this,” says the party member.

Tatarstan supporters of oppositionist Alexei Navalny also expressed support for the “joint list” of Yabloko and RPR-PARNAS. They themselves do not intend to participate in the elections, since the regional branch of the Progress Party is “in the registration stage.” “For now, we will help Yabloko and Parnassus, gain experience so that next year we will definitely take part in municipal elections,” explained the chairman of the department, Elvira Dmitrieva, to Kommersant.

In addition to the party list, the Yabloko conference approved five candidates for single-mandate constituencies. Four people moved to Kazan (Kremlin, Zarechny, Pribrezhny and Gorkinsky districts), an employee of the Aznakaevskneft department of Tatneft OJSC Ruslan Gilmanov - to Aznakaevo. “The negotiation process is ongoing with some other possible candidates. We haven't closed the list. If there are those interested, we will hold the second stage of the party conference,” said Mr. Zinatullin.

Let us note that this fall the Tatarstan “Yabloko” will take part in regional elections for the first time in the last 10 years. At the last elections in 2009, the party did not nominate its candidates. Then the victory was won by United Russia, which received 79.31% of the votes. Apart from her, only the Communist Party of the Russian Federation overcame the barrier with a result of 11.15%. In the 2011 Duma elections, Yabloko received only 1.08% in Tatarstan.

Political scientist at the Kazan National Research Technological University Sergei Sergeev believes that one should not count on a “special effect” from the unification of democrats. “For the last 20 years, democrats have been uniting, but only the first movement ‘For a Democratic Tatarstan’ was successful; subsequent ones failed,” he points out. The expert draws attention to the fact that “given the existence of administrative resources,” the opposition needs to “have a double or triple margin of safety,” and therefore, he believes, the democrats are faced with the task of “not only consolidating, but also increasing their electorate.” It is difficult for the party itself to predict how many votes the Yabloko list will be able to get in the elections. “In the Duma elections in the polling stations in Kazan where there was control, we gained from 7 to 15%. In the realities of Tatarstan, when the voting results are distorted, we will have to do everything possible to control the elections,” Ruslan Zinatullin emphasized.

Kirill Antonov

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