Much ado about nothing

On May 19, it became known that several figures of varying degrees of influence were withdrawn from the primaries of United Russia - from billionaire Mikhail Slipenchuk and former Chelyabinsk governor Mikhail Yurevich to deputy and journalist Alexander Khinshtein

And before that, on May 18, a few days before the voting day, scheduled for May 22, the organizers of the primaries, as if casually, announced a change in the rules of the game: it turned out that the results of the entire procedure would not be announced immediately, but only in a month. You can treat the characters withdrawn from the election as you like, but the fact remains: they were removed from the primaries even before the vote. Most likely, because of the fear that they will take the places already promised to other good and necessary people. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: on the ground, the practice of “cleansing” constituencies for “necessary” candidates is a matter of course.

The primaries of United Russia raised doubts from the very beginning: could the party in power, previously not seen in love for openness and democracy, the most important issue - the composition of candidates for the elections to the State Duma - be decided through an honest vote of its supporters? This is strange, if only because, unlike voters, which United Russia undoubtedly has, United Russia has serious problems with supporters: apart from the party apparatus on the salary and officials who are charged with the duty of doing party work, there are no activists willing to sacrifice the legal May day off for the sake of your favorite party in between-election time, no one has ever watched. That is, the organization of mass voting at the primaries already assumed the use of administrative resources, and the closer the day of the primaries, the more shamelessly it was prepared.

The electorate of the United Russia would not say a word if they were presented with a list of candidates ready-made

But, let's say, the turnout of supporters can be organized. An irresolvable fundamental contradiction: United Russia needs a noisy campaign under the slogan “people have chosen the most worthy, and they have become our candidates,” but at the same time, only people who are needed in the Duma and simply respected people who have a place in it for those or otherwise was promised. It was it that turned the whole event into a tedious and extremely costly farce that ended in a predictable misunderstanding - voting without publishing the results.

It's hard to say why all this was started - if we discard the material side of the issue: many people made good money on this stream of advertising, although this was hardly the main goal of the whole procedure. No one could have prevented EP from starting campaigning for itself six months before the elections, especially since the party is constantly doing this anyway. And even more so, the electorate of United Russia would not have said a word if the list of candidates had been presented to them in finished form.

The awkward attempt to play democracy and give the upcoming elections at least the appearance of intrigue, openness and novelty failed anyway. Four months before the elections of the new State Duma, it is already clear that everything will be there, as in the EP primaries - a lot of noise, a lot of administrative resources and a predictable result that will be brought to the attention of the public after it is approved by the authorities.