The Khakassia governor election, which ended with the victory of 30-year-old communist Valentin Konovalov, was unique for Russia. And it is not so much the success of the oppositionist – after all, this is already the third region where the current governors have lost this autumn. And it is not even that voters had to “choose” a governor from one candidate – in the 1990s, this happened more than once. But due to the consistent withdrawal of all the communist’s rivals, the second round lasted an unprecedented two months, which turned into a constant expectation of some kind of abrupt or even forceful actions by the federal center.

It would seem that who in Moscow cares about the small and distant Khakassia, a bankrupt region known only for the fact that in the early 1920s the young Red commander Arkady Golikov, the future grandfather of the father of Russian market reforms, chased enemies through the taiga there? This is not the strategic Primorsky Krai, which the Kremlin could not give to the communists for reasons of principle. But the magic formula “well, Putin and Shoigu are relaxing there!” convinced many observers that Konovalova would never be allowed to win in Khakassia. After which almost any electoral action in the region was accompanied by confident predictions from pessimists: “Well, now it will definitely start!..”

First, the head of the republic, Viktor Zimin, unexpectedly withdrew from the elections. "Everything is clear," the forecasters stated. "Now the elections will be cancelled, and Konovalov will not be allowed to participate in the new ones." But the second round was not cancelled, it was only postponed for two weeks.

Communist Konovalov wins elections in Khakassia

Politics / Democracy

Then the prosecutor's office found a "grandiose" violation in the documents submitted by the communist for registration (instead of the words "Khakass regional branch of the political party CPRF", it said "Communist Party of the Russian Federation Khakass branch"), and the election commission, repenting of its mistakes, immediately filed a lawsuit to remove Konovalov from the elections. "Well, that's it for sure now," the pessimists rubbed their hands. But then Mikhail Razvozhayev, the acting head of Khakassia appointed by the president, showed unexpected nobility, asking to withdraw the lawsuit and give the people a chance to speak out. And the election commission, repenting for the second time, immediately did so.

Then Konovalov's third and last rival withdrew from the elections, as a result of which the communist needed to receive more than 50% of the votes in the second round. At the same time, a massive propaganda campaign against "elections without choice" began in the republic, which was joined by some federal sociologists who conducted surveys in Khakassia on the topic: "Is voting for a single candidate fair?" "Aha, the center is preparing the ground for the abolition of uncontested elections," the skeptics perked up again, forgetting, however, that such an option is also provided for by the electoral legislation.

In the end, voting day finally arrived, but the observers did not give up: "They will drive public sector workers to the polling stations - and Konovalov will never get 50%." And even when the vote counting that began shattered these predictions, the skeptics continued to look for options: "Well, now the counting will stop, as it did in Primorye, and then everything will turn around." But nothing stopped or turned around, the communist received a confident 57%, and the next morning the Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov called the Khakassian elections "absolutely transparent and honest."

“Well, well,” the pessimists reasoned philosophically. “At least Primorye will definitely not be given to the opposition now.”

But personally, after Khakassia, for some reason, my confidence in this has diminished significantly.

Valentin Konovalov against pessimists