Acting Head of Khakassia Withdrew His Candidacy from the Elections

Acting head of Khakassia, candidate from United Russia Viktor Zimin withdrew his candidacy from the regional head elections, a source in the republic’s electoral commission told Interfax.

Details

• Zimin explained his decision by poor health.
• The second round of elections will be held on October 7, provided that the third-place candidate from A Just Russia, Andrei Filyagin, agrees to participate, said Yevgeny Shevchenko, a member of the Russian Central Election Commission. He will be competing with the Communist Party candidate Valentin Konovalov, who beat Zimin in the first round.
• If this does not happen and Konovalov participates in the second round alone, then he will need to gain 51% of the voters’ votes to win.

Context

• Khakassia is one of four regions where no candidate managed to gain more than 50% of the votes needed to win. According to the results of the first round, Viktor Zimin gained 32.42% of the votes. He was overtaken by the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Valentin Konovalov (44.81%), and the third place was taken by the head of the regional branch of the party "A Just Russia" Andrei Filyagin (11.23%).
• Earlier, a source for Vedomosti reported that after the first round, the Kremlin wanted Zimin to withdraw his candidacy from the elections. However, the publication's source from United Russia claimed that the situation was not hopeless, since Zimin's opponent was little known in the region.
• On September 16, the second round took place in Primorye (we wrote about the scandal over the results here and here ). The day before, the regional Electoral Commission cancelled the voting results. "The election results cannot be considered reliable," said the chairperson of the regional Electoral Commission, Tatyana Gladkikh.

Liana Faizova