By Vestnik Kavkaza
This year local elections will take place under new conditions – Russian regions have the opportunity to choose the form of electing their heads. Obviously the majority of regions will prefer direct voting by citizens. However, President Putin has recently stated that “we should respect regional peculiarities, especially in ethnic republics where several ethnic groups live together; and this aspect must be considered. If a new scheme is used, the officials who will come in office as a result of it will be treated by the federal authorities respectfully and will possess all functions and rights.”
Recently members of the Ingush parliament adopted a bill in the first reading, which requires that the head of the republic would be elected by the parliament. Ingushetia is the second after Dagestan region where the parliament voted against direct elections. Recently Ingushetia has seen first primaries – the current head of the republic Yunus-Bek Yevkurov defeated the speaker of the parliament.
“We can differently interpret diversification of places; the authorities in power always have advantageous and numerous disadvantageous,” Yevkurov commented on the primaries. “Anyone can insult the authorities in power. However, the authorities always have means for defense. Candidates for this position can only promise what we haven’t done for some reasons. Unlike us, they have never taken official positions and want to work. If we look at four candidates for presidency in the republic, they are people who are working in the republic, including myself, and one is a businessman. They have a lot to say.”
“We were not obliged to conduct primaries as the parliament has already decided and adopted the law on the elections through the parliament. 15 candidates are presented by all political parties. We have discussed this issue with heads of the parties and decided that these candidates deserve to expect appointments to various official positions. An elected head of the republic will consider them. Candidates should have good election programs on various directions,” Yevkurov says. “At the first primaries I recommended an anchorman to invite the opposition activists who can ask questions. It will lead to fruitful discussions and reasonable ideas.”
Yevkurov thinks that only one of five candidates was well prepared – the deputy chairman of the parliament Ruslan Gagiyev: “Four of us were not prepared for the primaries. We simply speak on the problem,” Yevkurov states. “Moreover, I had an advantage to speak last. But we decided to toss a coin for everyone was equal. So a coin decided who spoke first, second, and so on. We could avoid this, but we do it for revealing the best candidates for various official positions.”
