The majority of Russian citizens (70%) are aware of the upcoming parliamentary elections in September 29% learned about it during the survey conducted by the ‘Public Opinion’ (FOM).
66% of respondents are planning to vote, 38% of them are definitely planning to do it. 27% are not going to the polls, 8% did not give a proper answer, Interfax reports.
The majority of respondents (68%) said that they did not notice any campaign activity from the parties in their region. The other respondents mentioned activity of the United Russia (10%), the Communist Party (5%), the Liberal Democratic Party (4%) and the Fair Russia (3%).
The survey was conducted on April 16-17, among 1,500 respondents were citizens of 104 towns in 53 regions of the Federation Russian.
This year the Russian people will be electing deputies of the State Duma for 7th time. Regional and local will be held on the same day, September 18.
An assistant professor of public relations and media policy at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IGSU) RANHiGS Vera Zakharova said in a conversation with a correspondent of 'Vestnik Kavkaza' that these figures are quite high. However, we should expect a different turnout in the regions: in some places it will be higher, in others - lower.
The expert mentioned that such high electoral activity is due to the innovations in the electoral legislation that were introduced in recent years. "First of all, these are the primaries and the debates. We will organize the debates on May 22nd again. In addition, it will be interesting for voters to see new programs, political platforms and new people who may be elected to the new Duma and the regional Legislative Assembly," she said.
Moreover, according to Zakharova, more voters will participate in the elections on September 18 than are planning today right now. "People should believe that we have fair and transparent elections. All the efforts now aimed at achieving this goal, President Vladimir Putin said. In addition, Putin said our political system needs new faces. He also said at the board meeting of the Interior Ministry that we should not allowe criminals come to power. Vladimir Putin is concerned about the processes going on right now in place in the Russian political system. He wants the elections to be fair and open," the assistant professor said.
The fact that the Central Election Commission will be headed by "the former human rights activist Ella Pamfilova, the person who was elected to the State Duma several times, has a very good reputation for not allowing any excesses in the electoral process,’’ the expert noted.
According to Vera Zakharova, the composition of the lower house of the new parliament in the Duma will consist of the same four parties.
"Certainly, the first place will belong to the ruling party ‘United Russia’, but I believe there will be a lot of new faces, about 18-22%,’’ the assistant professor of public relations and media policy of the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IGSU) at RANHiGS said.
"The second will be the Communist Party with new interesting members. According to the tradition, LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) will be in the third place and then an alliance of some democratic parties - ‘Fair Russia’, the expert explained.
