Parties are active

Parties are active

Single Voting Day 2023 promises to be interesting.

Yesterday afternoon, the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI) held a round table on the results of the nomination of candidates for the autumn regional elections.

Maxim Grigoriev, Director of the Non-Commercial Foundation for the Study of Democracy Problems, First Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Public Control and Work with Citizens’ Appeals of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, said that about 90% of the parties decided to participate in the elections.

23 political parties nominated their candidates in the elections of all levels, more than 63 thousand people participate.

The average level of competition in the elections of senior officials is about 6 candidates per seat, in elections to regional Legislative Assemblies – on average, lists of candidates from 6.7 parties are nominated, and to the representative bodies of regional capitals in single constituencies – from 7 parties. This year, the agenda of most parties is very similar.

The most active parties were A Just Russia – For Truth, United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and New People. Rodina, the Party of Pensioners and the Communists of Russia tried to keep up with them.

The “Russian People’s Union”, the Democratic and Cossack parties, the Party of the Revival of Russia, which put forward candidates in individual districts, were spotlighted in the elections.

According to Mr. Grigoriev, there is a patriotic consensus in the current campaign, since most parties have formulated an unambiguous attitude towards the military special operation and geopolitical processes.

However, there are also parties that did not take patriotism – Yabloko, PARNAS (it was liquidated by the Supreme Court, but the decision has not yet entered into force) and Civil Initiative. Maxim Grigoriev is sure that the rejection of patriotism will drive the parties into a crisis.

He assessed the level of competition as average. So, according to the results of the nomination stage, he made up about six candidates for the seat.

Daria Kislitsyna, head of the EISI Regional Programs Department, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, spoke about the level of competition in the nomination of candidates for governors.

This year elections of senior officials are held in 21 regions. 125 candidates have already been nominated. Of these, 115 are representatives of the party and 10 are self-nominated. The party struggle, according to the speaker, has become noticeably more intense.

Political scientist and member of the Digoria expert club Aleksey Malinin supported his colleagues and noted the especially high party activity this year. According to him, in this “race”, the “Communists of Russia” cause some discomfort to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. “These parties have quite a pronounced positioning,” Malinin stressed.

Director of the Center for Political Analysis Pavel Danilin said that in all regions the submission of documents went smoothly, but not in Khakassia, where Valentin Konovalov prevented the candidate from the “Communists of Russia” Vladimir Grudinin from registering.

During the round table, it was noted that this year’s Single Voting Day is an important step towards the integration of new regions into the Russian political space.

In September, residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions will have to choose the composition of parliaments. This will be the first election campaign in the regions after their entry into Russia.

Recall that this year the single voting day is scheduled for September 10, the second Sunday of the month. 78 election campaigns will be held in 54 regions. More than 34 thousand mandates will be replaced, in addition, elections of heads of 21 regions will be held