In Sunday’s vote, the Russians decided on the composition of a number of regional parliaments and city councils, as well as elections for some governors and by-elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.
Preliminary results of Sunday’s vote show that politicians, backed by President Vladimir Putin, are heading for a clear victory in governor elections, for example in the Komi and Tatar republics, the Kamchatka region and more than a dozen other regions.
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Supporters of Navalny succeeded in Siberia, elections were accompanied by irregularities
The vote took place shortly after the sudden hospitalization of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He is currently in a hospital in Berlin, and German experts said he was most likely poisoned. Navalny’s associates accuse Russian President Putin of ordering the poisoning of the opposition, which the Kremlin resolutely rejects. Prior to the local elections, Navalnyj supported key rivals of United Russia.
However, according to preliminary results, Navalny’s supporters recorded a valuable victory in the elections to the city council in Novosibirsk, which is the third most populous city in Russia. They also apparently succeeded in the city council elections in Tomsk, Siberia, where United Russia lost a majority. The success in Tomsk, which lies about 2,900 kilometers east of Moscow, is symbolic for the opposition, because it was in this city that Navalny was poisoned, according to his supporters.
United Russia won 24.47 percent of the vote, equivalent to 11 of the 37 seats on the city council. It became the most politically diverse in Russia. Although the governing party has the strongest representation in it, it has lost the current majority of 21 seats, the DPA agency stated, adding that two Navalný collaborators were also elected to the council.
The Navalny team called on the Russians to vote tactically and support more than a thousand pre-appointed candidates who, according to the opposition, had the best chance of defeating pro-Kremlin politicians. Among those who most likely won a seat on the city council in Novosibirsk is, for example, Navalny’s ally Sergei Boyko.
United Russia Secretary Andrei Turchak said the party had a “convincing victory” in a vote that was seen as a test ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. Dissatisfaction with the United Russia party over unpopular pension reform, declining incomes and corruption is growing among voters.
However, the government’s side was helped by the use of several days before the election date, which Russian laws allow and which gives authorities more room to mobilize loyal voters, but also to reduce competition in governor elections after the previous year’s experience, when Kremlin candidates lost in three regions. Russian editorial staff of the BBC political scientist Alexandr Pozalov.
The Golos NGO said before the election that many opposition politicians had been prevented from running in the election. According to independent observers, Sunday’s vote itself was marked by a number of irregularities.
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