The regional ballots were held Sunday in 14 regions across Russia, involving about a third of the country's electorate, and they are regarded as a dress rehearsal for elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, scheduled for December 2.
"In one of the 14 subjects [of the Russian Federation] we will discuss the possibility of electing Sergei Mironov as senator," said Boris Gryzlov, leader of United Russia and speaker of the lower house of parliament, State Duma.
According to preliminary results, United Russia has won a landslide victory in 13 of the regions, trailing only the new Just Russia party in the Stavropol Territory.
Just Russia won 37.4% of the vote in the Stavropol Duma elections while United Russia came second with only 23.8% of the vote.
Gryzlov said that Mironov, as the leader of Just Russia, could run for the next term in the Federation Council on the Stavropol Territory ballot.
At the same time, Gryzlov said in an apparent display of disappointment over his party's defeat in the Stavropol Territory that the regional governor, United Russia's Alexander Chernogorov, should resign because the election results showed a lack of confidence in his work.
"A governor with these results should not remain at his post," the United Russia leader said.
Despite the surprising success of the Just Russia party, Gryzlov said the newcomer on the Russian political scene would not pose a threat to his party because it will compete mostly with Russia's leftist forces.
"We can see that competition on the left flank has grown stronger," Gryzlov said.
The Just Russia party, which was recently formed after a merger of the Party of Life, the Russian Party of Pensioners and the Rodina party, is largely considered a Kremlin clone created to neutralize the influence of the Communists.
