United Russia selects the best candidates for elections to Duma

The party ‘United Russia’ held today a preliminary vote on selection of the candidates for the September elections to the State Duma on the whole territory of the Russian Federation.

In the course of it the Russians voted for 2781 challenger to the status of a deputy of  ‘United Russia’ on more than 19 thousand polling stations that worked from 8:00 to 20:00.

The members of the party and non-party members with no criminal record (even removed or extinguished), who do not have accounts and other financial instruments abroad could participate in the primaries. At the same time they had to participate in the public debates.

‘United Russia’ believes this procedure is an effective way of selecting the strongest candidates and the public opinion leaders who could participate in the elections as the members of the party, securing it a good result, as well as screening of the obviously impassable candidates, and those who are promoted  by the local authorities, but not possessing sufficient authority with the electorate.

The citizens were provided two ballots at the polling station - one to vote for the candidates nominated for a single-mandate constituency, the second - to vote for the candidates on the list from a particular region (it identifies people who claim to be included in the party list in the elections to the State Duma). A single ballot was issued in 32 regions consisting of one county.

The voting was conducted by the rating principle: a voter could indicate not only one candidate, as it often happens in the ordinary elections, but to support several of candidates, placing them in order of preference.

The Russian prime minister and the chairman of the United Russia party, Dmitry Medvedev, who was in Crimea today, spoke about the particular importance of the primaries.

"Today is a special day for the United Russia party, because we hold the preliminary elections for the first time in our vast country,’’ TASS quotes him as saying.

The Secretary of the General Council of ‘United Russia’, Sergei Neverov, noted the high turnout of the voters. "The turnout is very high. More than 8.5 million of our citizens went to the polls and voted for the candidates they would like to see in the future on the list of ‘United Russia’,’’ he said, recalling that there was a lack of ballots in a number of areas until the completion of the voting.

"If we talk about the elections, which took place in 2011, then 32 million people voted for ‘United Russia’. That is, today we can say that by and large 25% of those voters, who voted for ‘United Russia’, now come to the polls to choose those candidates whom they want to see. This is a very high turnout, " Neverov said.

The North Caucasus was no exception. A high voter turnout was in these regions. At the same time, there was not a single infringement registered as of 19:00. The regional leaders voted first.

According to the Central Election Commission’s member with the right to an advisory vote, the deputy head of the executive committee of the party, Konstantin Mazurevskaj, a counting of votes given for the candidates will begin tonight and will go all the night. ‘’ The generalization of the district and regional commissions will take place on May 23rd. And on May 24th the regional organizing committees will summarize the results, and the regions will send them to Moscow to the Federal Organizing Committee,’’ he said.

The final voting results will be announced on May 27th.