TV election ads by United Russia and the Liberal Democrats have proved more appealing to viewers than videos by other parties in the campaign, with a poll showing 47% of Russians have watched them on TV.
However, it is the ruling United Russia party’s propaganda that seems to have pleased citizens most, the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) discovered. About a third of viewers enjoyed the videos by the Putin-led faction, while 15 % said they did not. The election ads by the Liberal Democrats with their unchallenged leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky got the thumbs up from 27 % of viewers. Nevertheless, one fifth were left unimpressed.Meanwhile, the Communists and Fair Russia attracted a little less attention from voters, with 38 and 37 per cent respectively having seen them. As for political forces not currently represented in the Russian lower house, the liberal Yabloko party is topping the list with its videos being seen by almost a quarter of those polled.At the same time, the party’s adverts got more negative than positive reviews (15 % vs. 8%). Patriots of Russia and Right Cause are lagging behind with 16 and 14 per cent of the audience. Russia’s parliamentary election campaign officially kicked off on November 5 and will run till midnight on December 3, followed by a traditional “day of silence” before polling day. Seven registered political parties will be battling for seats in the State Duma on December 4. On Thursday, PM Vladimir Putin urged his party to win the upcoming election. He warned that in case it fails to retain the constitutional majority (300 deputies), the parliament will stop being efficient which might draw the country into economic troubles similar to those currently plaguing Europe and the US. Currently United Russia has 315 seats out of 450.Despite the PM’s appeals, sociologists are not that optimistic about United Russia’s election prospects.According to a poll carried out by the Levada-Center, if the elections were held next Sunday, only 53 per cent of voters would cast their ballots for the ruling party, reports Interfax. That means it would get 253 seats in the lower house. One fifth of voters would support the Communist party, the Liberal Democrats could get 12 % and Fair Russia has been predicted to poll just 9 % of votes.