On Sunday the unified voting day took place in 83 regions of Russia. 279 messages from 61 regions of Russia were received by the Central Electoral Commission during the preparations and holding of the day from September 7 to 13th. The majority of addresses (85, i.e. 30%) contained criticism of the elections’ organization. Moreover, people were interested in the order of voting and explanation of the laws on election; they wanted to know more details about the voting day and the locations of ballot stations. The CEC believes that in such a way voters are actively standing for their rights.
However, Alexei Alexandrov, the First Deputy of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, stated that the elections were not perfect from the legal point of view, but politically, they showed that the Russian Federation had developed as a democratic state: “We have four parliamentary parties, which are actively involved in the political struggle and have their programs, with their positions, which are clear to people. They are already established positions. The previous years have shown that we can work together. And practically the whole of society is fully reflected in the political programs of the parliamentary parties.”
According to Alexandrov, on September 13th the electoral legislation was checked: “I was very interested in the law on the formation of the Federation Council. We have seen once again how it goes in practice – the election of the members of the Federation Council and the executive and the legislative power.”
As for results, the senator says that the most important thing is that the party United Russia is ahead: “It is the only political force which has supported President Putin all these years. We proclaimed a new course of development of our country toward independence. And I think the next political position that we need is a national Russian state-legal ideology which is focused on the development of the Russian Federation. We absolutely don’t accept any hint of external control. In my opinion, the country is now being united around this idea.”
For Nikolai Bulayev, First Deputy Head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, this election campaign is not the first. He has been involved in various election campaigns at different levels since 1974. “This was the campaign of the Ryazan Regional Duma’s deputies. I was in the other regions in this period, I was in Novosibirsk, I was in Kostroma. I met people,” Bulayev said.
He reached a certain conclusion about the meetings: “People who come to you for a meeting, and then, as a rule, come to the polling station, have a different political training. These people are hard to convince that you believe us now, and tomorrow there will be a brighter future, it is difficult for people to trust this, and if we are talking about frank populism, they smile and look at it and usually leave the meeting much earlier. The results of the election campaign have shown that, in order to get votes, you must prove that yesterday you were not playing the fool, and you have some results.”
In the same Ryazan region, the United Russia faction won in 18 constituencies out of 18. “In this election campaign, the voters made informed choices… I did not notice any significant violations anywhere… The positions of many parliamentary parties have strengthened… We united in the interests of Russia, and this played a positive role in people's attitude towards the parliamentary parties. Therefore, it would probably be correct to regard this campaign as a rehearsal, if not a general one, but a very serious one. The trends have been produced, they, of course, can vary. The party has a whole year – some will strengthen further, some will strongly correct their course,” the MP believes.
