The Democratic Coalition published a list of regions where it intended to participate in the elections of September 13th in the Kaluga, Kostroma and Novosibirsk Regions. The Republics of the North Caucasus are not a priority for the Democratic Coalition, SevKavInform reports. Five parties are included in the Democratic Coalition (one of them isn’t registered) – the Party of Progress of Alexey Navalny, the Party of Peoples’ Freedom (RPR-PARNAS) of Mikhail Kasyanov, the Civil Initiative of Andrei Nechayev, the Democratic Choice of Vladimir Milov, and the Party of December 5th. The prediction of the possible participation of the liberal-democratic opposition in the upcoming elections is possible, considering the results of the previous United Election Day of 2014. Members of the regional parliaments of Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Vladikavkaz were elected. The only party which could be called a real opposition and allowed to participate in the elections was Yabloko. However, the party gained only 0.3% of the votes. Representatives of United Russia dominated in all the municipal entities of the NCFD in 2014.
Georgy Fedorov, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, thinks that the elections will be held without controversies and will be quite predictable as usual: “A leader is a representative of the authorities. Naturally, he has a competitive advantage over the so-called opposition candidates. For example, in Krasnodar Territory it is clear that the opposition was helped to pass the municipal elections filter in order to be competitive.”
Fedorov believes that the opposition is asleep: “In many respects their election campaign, particularly of the systemic opposition, is a simulation campaign. That is, instead of performing two or three or four times better than the ruling power, somehow, for some reason, the opposition candidates are openly weak sometimes, and sometimes they are defeated before the election campaign starts, which, in my view, makes the attendance of elections less, and there is no intrigue… The opposition is weaker in the regions than anywhere else. That is, if in Moscow or major cities, there is still a target audience of the opposition, the farther away from Moscow, the opposition has weaker and weaker leaders.”
At the same time, the expert notes that, in general, the non-systemic opposition has chosen the right path: “It has gone to the regions. According to the overall state, the regional policy is in a pre-depression and depression state, problems are arising. Many political forces are now testing themselves before the next parliamentary election campaign. The next campaign will be interesting, because there will be single-mandate contests. For many it is a springboard for election to the State Duma. The authorities need to understand that an opposition is needed, and it should be cherished and nurtured. Because if there is no opposition, the government overshadows everything, and the process is stopped. And the opposition must understand that all the same it's time to fight, albeit on lower levels. Because the protests are quite serious, the growing economic crisis has hit many people, and if people do not see their representatives in the candidates, it can lead to negative consequences.”
