Local and regional election took place across Russia on Sunday as millions went to the polling stations to elect 30 governors, 14 regional parliaments, three mayors and thousands of municipal assemblies, including Moscow's City Duma.
A record number of 75 million eligible voters were registered
this year for the single election day on Sunday, according to the
election commission chairman Leonid Ivlev.
The elections at all levels were held in all Russian regions
except in the republic of Ingushetia. Thirty Russian regions
elected their heads and governors, 14 regions elected legislative
assemblies, while three administrative centers of Russian regions
elected their mayors.
For the first time the elections were held in Crimea and the city
of Sevastopol, which joined Russia in March after the majority of
Crimean residents voted to secede from Ukraine at a regional
referendum. The regional election commission head said that 45
percent of registered voters at the peninsula had cast their
ballots as of 6 pm local time (2 pm GMT).
In general the voter turnout was rather low. In Russia’s capital
Moscow the turnout was registered at some 18 percent by 6 pm
local time (2 pm GMT). For the first time 45 MPs from eight
political parties instead of the usual 35 members were elected to
the Moscow City Duma.
However in some regions the turnout exceeded 50 percent. A high
turnout was reported at the governor elections in Orel, Samara
and Tyumen regions, and in elections of heads of the republics of
Komi and Kalmykia. The highest turnout – over 60 percent - was
registered at elections to legislative assemblies in the
republics of Tyva, Tatarstan, Kabardino-Balkaria and
Karachay-Cherkessia.
Preliminary results showed the dominance of the parties and
candidates supporting the ruling United Russia party. Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he was content with the
Sunday results.
“United Russia had shown a very good result,” he said at
videoconference at the party’s headquarters in Moscow on Sunday.
“I think the voter turnout demonstrated the interest for
elections in the conditions of the current actual political
competition.”
The elections had been held in a “serious competitive
landscape,” he said adding that “in the current
conditions, when the turnout is not very high, our party is
capable of mobilizing the electorate,” he stressed.
The country’s Central Election Commission said it received no
complaints during the All-Russian Election Day.
“Not a single complaint,” Ivlev said on Sunday evening
though adding that the commission had received 140 calls most of
which had been questions. “As many as 41 calls reported
possible violations in the activities of election
commissions,” he added.