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The opposition urged voters to “vote smart,” not to boycott the elections, but to invest everything in the candidate who has the best chance of winning over Putin’s loyal United Russia representatives.
In some places at least, the tactics have made their mark. United Russia loses its majority in the country’s third-largest city, Novosibirsk, where the party takes home 22 out of a total of 50 seats, a decrease of eleven seats compared to the last elections.
In the student city of Tomsk, with a population of half a million, United Russia’s support dropped by more than half compared to 2015.
– People are tired of the authorities. You can’t sit on the throne for 20 years, take and steal indefinitely and go unpunished, says Ksenja Fadejeva, an ally of Navalny, who is now taking a seat on Tomsk’s council.
“It’s not that useless”
Tatiana Doroshenko, chair of an electoral commission in Tomsk, says United Russia’s performance is the weakest she has seen in her 15 years as president.
– This is a fantastic example of how you can get involved in politics, which is not as insignificant as it has recently appeared.
This weekend’s Russian regional and local elections were expected to give an indication of how viable the opposition’s tactics are ahead of next year’s national elections to the State Duma.
The election took place three weeks after regime critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned by what is believed to be nerve poison during a trip to Siberia. During the trip, he accused several of the United Russia candidates of corruption and abuse of power.
Symbolic victory
The fact that several opposition candidates are taking seats at United Russia’s expense is emphasized as a victory by Navalny’s supporters. “A hard blow”, says for example Ksenja Fadejeva in Tomsk.
At the same time, Putin’s party took home twelve of the 18 governor seats at stake, with the rest going to Kremlin loyalists.
“These elections were a test for the regime, a test of its ability to control the electoral process, and it passed the test quite convincingly,” said political analyst Tatiana Stanovaja.
Voter fraud reports
The Russian independent electoral observation group Golos has received a “series of reports” that election observers are denied access to documents and complaints, which in turn has sparked fights. There is also information that opposition candidates have been refused to run and that election officials have exchanged ballots, according to Golos.
The Central Election Commission, for its part, affirms that there have been “fewer problems than ever,” reports the stable news agency Tass.
A man is voting in the Leningrad regional elections in the town of Luppolovo on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg. Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky / AP / TT
According to the constitution, power in Russia must be divided between the president and the government, the parliament and the judiciary, but in practice most of the power rests with the president.
The president appoints the prime minister and, together with the prime minister, all other ministers. He also appoints the highest judges, the Attorney General, the Governor of the Riksbank and is the Commander-in-Chief and the most responsible of all the ministries and authorities involved in internal and external security.
The Parliament, or Federal Assembly, is made up of the lower house of the State Duma and the upper house of the Federal Council. The next parliamentary elections will be held in 2021.
The incumbent President Vladimir Putin won his first presidential elections in 2000. In 2008, the constitution prevented him from running again and instead became prime minister, while his close confidant, Dmitry Medvedev, became president.
In 2012, Putin was reelected president of Russia. Under the current Russian constitution, his term lasts until 2024.
The Russian Federation consists of 85 subjects: 22 sub-republics (including the annexed Crimean peninsula), 46 oblasts (counties), nine kraj (territory), four weeds (autonomous districts), three federal cities (including Sevastopol on the peninsula of Crimea) and Jewish autonomous counties.
Sources: UI / Landguiden, NE
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