Regional polls give dose of reality to pro-Kremlin United Russia
The first results from a round of Russian regional elections seen as a popularity test for United Russia showed the pro-Kremlin party gaining less support that it was expecting.
The first results from a round of Russian regional elections seen as a popularity test for United Russia showed the pro-Kremlin party gaining less support that it was expecting.
A major blow came in the city of Irkutsk, one of the largest in Siberia, where the Communist candidate for mayor won 62% of the vote, more then double United Russia's candidate, who gained some 27%.
Only about half the eligible voters took part in Sunday's polls, which were held in regions from the Far East to European Russia amid rising unemployment and utility charges. Elections to local authorities were held in 76 out of 83 Russian regions.
Ahead of the elections, United Russia leaders expressed confidence that the party would gain more than 50% in each of the eight elections to regional legislatures, but the predominant power in the federal parliament appears to have fallen short of those expectations.
According to preliminary data, the party was supported by more than a half of those eligible for voting only in four of the eight regions, gaining around 62% in the southwestern Voronezh and about 53% and 50% in the Kaluga and Ryazan regions around Moscow. In the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area in northwest Siberia, where all ballots have been already counted, the party did better with 64% of the vote.
In the Khabarovsk Territory in the Far East, the Altai Republic and Kurgan Region in southern Siberia, and in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals, the party managed only about 48%, 44%, 41% and 40%, respectively.
United Russia is, however, leading in each of the regional legislative polls, followed by the Communists, Liberal Democrats (LDPR) and the A Just Russia party, which exchanged second, third and fourth places in different regions.
Leading Russian business daily Kommersant quoted on Monday a source in United Russia's leadership as saying preliminary results "look like a wave of protest voting," with people supporting anyone but the ruling "power."
Political scientist Boris Makarenko told the paper the first results demonstrated a trend towards an increasing opposition presence in Russia's local legislatures.
A spokesman for the country's Central Election Commission said all four parties represented in the lower house of the Russian parliament - United Russia, the Communists, Liberal Democrats (LDPR) and the opposition A Just Russia party - would make it into the eight regions' legislations.
Central Election Commission head Vladimir Churov said on Monday the average voters' turnout in the Russian legislative polls was 42.6%.
MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti)