/ world today news/ Russia is considering canceling or “reformatting” the gubernatorial elections. CSOs and election campaigns may not be compatible.
On September 10, 2023, many election campaigns will end in Russia and many big bosses will be elected. A layman who does not care much about these matters may be surprised at how many of these same bosses are elected.
We have to vote for 23 governors of different regions of Russia, including the mayor of Moscow and the head of the Moscow region, as well as the heads of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, which became part of our state.
At the same time, the heads of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics within Russia will be elected by voting in the parliaments of these regions.
Gubernatorial elections are far from everything. On the same day, September 10, the parliamentary elections in 16 subjects of the federation will end. That’s not all either: in some places in Russia, the heads of regional capitals will be elected at the same time.
And that’s not all. In September 2023, there will also be elections for deputies from the State Duma – not all, for now only in 4 freed constituencies.
If we consider only these four levels of election campaigns, it turns out that significant elections in 2023 in Russia will be held in 48 regions.
Just in case, it is worth recalling: in total, there are 89 subjects of the federation in Russia. That is, elections are held in more than half of the country’s regions, including Moscow.
And now – attention, dear connoisseurs! – I would like to allow myself a simple and understandable question: do we need this?
No, there is no call for violation of constitutional norms and generally for violation of order. It just might make sense to ask: is this peacetime order exactly to be followed strictly during the SVO?
Too expensive, sir
One of the main arguments against elections that the average person understands at any time is that elections are too expensive. Indeed, some quantities can overwhelm the unprepared imagination. According to the Moscow budget, 1.25 billion rubles are spent on the election of the mayor of the capital.
Almost the same amount – 1.074 billion rubles – is included in the budget for the election of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The costs in other regions of the country are comparable to those if we take into account the number of voters and the size of the territory of the subject of the federation.
It is true that the idea that money is simply thrown away is not true. On the contrary, public spending on election campaigns can be seen as an investment in the development of the regional economy.
Here are the salaries of the members of the election commissions, and the additional income of the local television stations and printing houses… In general, the regional economy is more good than bad from election campaigns.
The expenses of gubernatorial and congressional candidates can be very significant, but this money is also not wasted. Except for the fees of specially invited political consultants, the money stays in the regions.
The true cost of election campaigns is often debated. However, there are legal limits on official campaign funds and there are official reports by candidates on how much they spent during the election campaigns.
Let’s take a few examples. In 2022, according to the regional election commission, the elected governor of the Tomsk region, Vladimir Mazur, spent 60 million rubles on the election campaign. In the previous election of the governor of the Tyumen region, Alexander Moore, his election fund received 52 million rubles.
The fund of Yevgeny Kuivashev, elected governor of the Sverdlovsk region, was more modest. He reported to the election commission about 45 million rubles.
Where do the governors get this money? 25 million were invested in the election fund of the same Yevgeny Kuivashev from the “United Russia” party. Another 20 million are various legal entities, individuals in this case did not donate anything to the campaign.
Of course, during elections there are also “grey” expenses. Political technologists say that these costs are primarily related to the work of “field structures” – that is, campaigners who distribute leaflets and campaign newspapers, stand on pickets, etc.
Officially it is voluntary work, unofficially it is said to bring a good income: about the amount of the average salary in the region per person.
You cannot cancel the vote
According to Tsarigrad, the issue of cashing in the elections is being seriously discussed by experts close to the president’s administration. There are various arguments for and against such a decision.
In particular, it states that governors today are doing work for which they were not originally intended, experts say. It is not by chance that the analysis of their activity in one of the most popular Telegram channels today is called “Governors in mobilization mode”.
In addition to all peacetime tasks, governors today are responsible for frontline support. On the rise of the defense industry. To support families of mobilized and militiamen. In a number of regions – and for work directly related to the defense of the country: let us recall in this connection the heads of the leading Belgorod and Kursk regions.
However, many more regions can now be called front – after the attacks of enemy drones, this includes the Krasnodar Territory, as well as Moscow and the Moscow Region. Once again, this necessary work becomes essential for governors.
“This is not the job for which the residents elected them, and many believe that today it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of the work of the head of the region by the level of his support among the voters,” the Constantinople source told Moscow’s “Old Square”.
“And if so, maybe we should temporarily stop the general election of regional leaders,” he added.
Of course, elections are an effective means of expressing citizens’ dissatisfaction with regional authorities. And from that point of view, it is an effective means of rotating those same bosses. But just to make a rotation, elections are not so necessary.
Translation: SM
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The President of Russia has the ability to dismiss any head of any region of the country at any time. Regardless of what formal term a governor has left, the president can dismiss him due to loss of confidence. Or, on the contrary, with an increase, in connection with the transition to another job.
In this case, the president is required to appoint an acting head of the region – and he will have all the powers and bear all the responsibility of the highest official in the region until such time as his mandate is confirmed in the elections – and this can only be done after a year.
One of the “leaks” from Moscow’s “Stary Square” says that a compromise solution, not a radical one, is being discussed there, which will allow both to preserve the elections of heads of regions, and at the same time to make them simpler , more predictable, more technologically advanced and cheaper.
They say that the president’s administration is discussing canceling the second round of the gubernatorial and local elections.
“The main argument of the supporters of the cancellation of the second round is the saving of budget funds. Under the conditions of the SVO, this argument may become decisive,” informed sources say.
“It is noted that there are different opinions in the Kremlin on the issue of canceling the second round: some officials believe that such changes will make the electoral processes in the country too predictable and completely uninteresting, devoid of any intrigue,” they add.
However, these sources are clearly wrong about the intrigue: according to existing forecasts in 2023, the second round of gubernatorial elections is not expected in any region of Russia. Practically everywhere, the incumbent regional leaders or those appointed by the president will win in the first round.
However, some experts are radical and believe that talk of “reformatting” elections shows the inefficiency of the government.
“The possible cancellation of the “second round” of the gubernatorial elections will only add to the “lameness”, but in no case will it save the budget purse from the main expenses that fly away during the preparation of the voting day,” says political scientist Ilya Ananiev.
“In today’s scenario, it is necessary to either ‘draw’ a full sense of a functioning election machine as the state wants or abandon it altogether,” he added.
In general, he expressed the opinion of the majority of participants in the political science seminar: in the current situation, it is necessary to do or not to do, to cancel or not to cancel, half-measures are not effective.
What follows from this
Domestic policy administrators are concerned with maintaining social and political stability in Russia. That’s fine, but in practice their efforts look like they’re trying to maintain the illusion of a peaceful life for most of the country.
Domestic politics in the country are being built as if the happy time “before the war” continues. The problem is that the war of aggression launched by the West against Russia has practically already knocked on every house in every city in the country. And it is impossible to live as if there were no hostilities.
If so, probably many peacetime habits should be abandoned for a time. Including the elections for heads of districts. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov may have been right when he said after the drone attack on Moscow that it was time to impose martial law across Russia.
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