GOLOS 2nd report on regional and local elections in Russia: Election Campaign

русская версия: PDF     |     deutsche Version: PDF

Summary

In a number of cases, the Russian Federation’s Central Election Commission overturned the decisions of lower election commissions to refuse to certify and register party lists and candidates for the regional elections. However, these examples represent only a small proportion of the cases among numerous instances of non-admission of parties and candidates for elections.

The most politically important complaint, relating to the restoration of registration of the Citizens’ Platform party list in the elections to the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma, was dismissed by a court. Furthermore, the election commission of Khakassia refused to register the RPR-PARNAS list.

The elections of heads of key municipalities that remain one of the most problematic parts of the Russian elections.The amount of candidates who have been „filtered out“  at the registration stage was 21 %. The rate of „filtering out“ of self-nominated candidates reached 70 %.

As far as the election campaigning stage is concerned, low voter turnout is put at stake in some regions. It allows mobilizing the largely administratively dependent electorate with the simultaneous use of technologies to discredit alternative parties and candidates.

Early election campaigning was reported throughout the observed period: a significant part of the campaign took place even before its official launch and beyond the legal framework outlined by the electoral legislation.

The main strategies used by candidates representing the current regime are both early and indirect campaigning under the guise of covering the professional activities of candidates.

Massive indirect campaigning is often accompanied by the minimization of formal campaigning and the growing number of bans on providing candidates and parties with both paid and free broadcast time and newspaper space in the media.

The full report is available here: PDF