The Communist Party candidate is leading in the second round of the Primorye gubernatorial elections

In the Primorsky Krai gubernatorial elections, the Communist Party candidate Andrei Ishchenko won in the second round against the incumbent head of the region, United Russia member Andrei Tarasenko — after the Central Election Commission processed 62% of the votes. Primorye is one of four regions where it was not possible to determine a winner in the first round. In the other regions, incumbent governors from United Russia won almost everywhere.

Details

• As of 18:06, the CPRF candidate Andrei Ishchenko is leading with 52.65% of the votes. Tarasenko is gaining 44.77%. At the same time, during the day, citing exit poll data , Interfax wrote that the incumbent governor should win with 53% of the votes.
• Ishchenko is a developer, and in September 2016 he was elected as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai of the sixth convocation. He is an engineer by education and a military man with the rank of lieutenant.
• Vladimir Putin appointed Tarasenko as acting governor of the region in October 2017, after Vladimir Miklushevsky was dismissed (the president then dismissed several governors at once).
• Based on the results of last year, Tarasenko entered the top 15 governors with the highest income: in 2017, he earned 16.1 million rubles, his family earned a total of 22.2 million.
• After the first round, Putin personally supported Tarasenko, Kommersant wrote . "I know that you have a second round coming up. I think everything will be fine," the president encouraged Tarasenko on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Moreover, the president met separately with the governor for a "private one-on-one lunch."
• The second round in Primorye came as a surprise to the Kremlin, Vedomosti wrote. According to the publication, the presidential administration nevertheless believed that Tarasenko would "definitely" win in the second round.
• During the first round in Primorye, “there was an order not to overdo it with administrative resources, avoid scandals, and not resort to dirty tricks.” “If everything had gone as before, there would not have been a second round,” said a Kommersant source in the local branch of United Russia.
• Political analysts interviewed by the newspaper emphasized that Ishchenko "scored a lot of points" by opposing the pension reform (Tarasenko fully supported the reform). "Second place is not Ishchenko's merit. It is the result of protest voting, voters expressed their rejection of the pension reform. In a region where protest sentiments are historically strong, any candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the current situation would have received a similar result," political consultant Alexander Shemelev told the publication.

Context

• Primorsky Krai is one of four regions where the first round of gubernatorial elections did not produce a winner. The second round in Vladimir Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai and Khakassia will be held on Sunday, September 23. Here you can read Meduza's interview with the Communist Party candidate Valentin Konovalov — he won the first round in Khakassia against the incumbent governor.
• In the remaining regions, the incumbent governors from United Russia won almost everywhere. In Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin won with 70.1%, with the Communist Party candidate Vadim Kumin in second place (11.3%).
• Kremlin candidates in gubernatorial elections showed their worst result in six years: since the return of gubernatorial elections in 2012, the government candidate failed to win in the first round only once. For the first time since 2007, United Russia lost the vote on party lists in parliamentary elections in three regions – the worst result in 11 years.

Artem Gubenko