2023-09-10 19:49:00
The Kremlin is likely to see the local and regional elections in Russia, which were held in the middle of the war, as a successful test of sentiment. Its candidates are leading in many places – but it is not a free vote, especially in the sham elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine. In a total of 85 regions of Russia, voters were asked to cast their votes at various levels.
A record result was already clear in Moscow before the polls closed. According to official information, participation was more than 40 percent. This many Muscovites have not voted in mayoral elections for 20 years. Even when the opposition activist Alexei Navalny took office in 2013, it was only 32 percent.
Caption: Putin’s United Russia party is considered the favorite in the regional elections almost everywhere. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
There was no sign of election fever in Moscow either during the election campaign or during the three days of voting. The rush to the polls was limited. The incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, was considered the clear favorite, and the opposing candidates were hardly known to most voters. There were reports that companies and administrations urged their employees to vote. Voters should vote primarily electronically.
According to official information, Sobyanin is clearly leading in the election for Moscow mayor. According to Russian agencies, Artyom Kostyrko, a senior Moscow city administration official, said he received more than two million votes in the online vote. The grandson of communist leader Andrei Zyuganov, Leonid Zyuganov, came second in electronic voting with just over 200,000 votes.
Elections in occupied territories of Ukraine
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For the first time, Russia also held sham elections in the occupied parts of Ukraine. From there, the authorities even reported particularly high voting figures. More than 50 percent are said to have voted in the annexed part of Zaporizhia, over 60 percent in the Russian-controlled parts of Kherson and Luhansk, and even more than 70 percent in the Donetsk region. The Kremlin party United Russia was clearly in the lead.
The information cannot be independently verified. There were as few independent election observers in the occupied territories of Ukraine as there were in Russia itself. The non-governmental organization “Golos”, which had repeatedly uncovered violations in previous votes, was banned in advance by the Kremlin as being undesirable, and the co-chairman Grigory Melkonyants was banned be detained for a few weeks.
Faux pas by the electoral commission
Nevertheless, a number of irregularities were reported once more this time: In one region, communist supporters allegedly filmed a member of the local election commission exchanging ballot papers. However, the Interior Ministry spoke of only a few incidents across the country that had no impact on the result. The electoral commission made a faux pas when results from the Siberian region of Yakutia appeared on its voting table – 20 minutes before the last polling stations there closed. The authority later spoke of a technical error. Only the results from polling stations that had already been closed were shown.
The preliminary interim results indicate a breakthrough for the Kremlin candidates. In the Far East, the governors appointed by the Russian leadership consistently lead.
Medvedev: Kremlin party achieves “worthy result”
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The head of the Kremlin party United Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has rated his party’s result in the local and regional elections in Russia as positive. “It can already be said that United Russia has performed with dignity,” said the ex-president, who as deputy head of the National Security Council still has influence in Russian politics, according to the state news agency Tass.
It was possible to hold almost all positions. Now it’s regarding keeping the election promises. Medvedev separately addressed the sham elections in the four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia. He claimed that the people there had shown moral courage with their vote.
The Kremlin will probably have to accept its only defeat in the Siberian republic of Khakassia, where the communist governor Valentin Konovalov, who came to office on a wave of protests five years ago, led with around 60 percent of the vote. However, the Kremlin had already acknowledged its defeat there a few days ago and removed its own candidate from the race because of alleged health problems.
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