Election update I. There will be no competition in the Russian gubernatorial elections 2023

The gubernatorial elections will be held in September 2023 in 21 regions with a total population of 53.5 million people or 36% of the Russian population, including Moscow and the Moscow region.

On 27 July, the Movement for Defence of Voters’ Rights “Golos” published a major analytical report on the candidates running for governor. Our editorial team summarized its key findings.

The report concludes that no real competition should be expected in this election, with only a few exceptions. Many parties, including the leading liberal opposition “Yabloko” party, did not have a chance to nominate a single candidate.

What is the reason?

The main barrier to the registration of opposition candidates is the so-called “municipal filter” through which every candidate must pass. In order to pass the filter, the candidate must collect a large number of signatures from the heads of municipalities or local deputies. Opposition candidates are not able to collect the required number of signatures, since most of the parties, except the ruling “United Russia” and, in some regions, the “Communist Party of the Russian Federation” (CPRF) do not have enough deputies in the local councils. As a result, the “municipal filter” - with rare exceptions - can be passed only by those candidates who have been approved by the regional authorities and the Presidential Administration. These can be both candidates from the ruling party and loyal candidates from other parties.

Is there any point in following the gubernatorial elections in 2023?

According to “Golos” analysts, some of the regions may show unexpected results. This year governor elections are taking place in the same regions where five years ago the authorities were suddenly confronted with a protest vote. Back then, the authorities in four regions lost the gubernatorial elections. In one of these regions, the Republic of Khakassia, the incumbent Communist governor faces re-election in a tough fight against the pro-Kremlin candidate.

However, the 2023 gubernatorial election campaign will, by and large, be of little interest.

Key findings of the report

1. The competition in the governor elections in 2023 is at its lowest level since 2018. On average, there are 5.2 candidates nominated per region. In 2022 there were 6.3 candidates per region compared to 10.2 candidates in 2019.

2. In more than half of the regions where elections are held, only four out of the 27 parties registered in Russia are running. Whilst one of the parliamentary parties, “New People”, is not among these four.

3. In many regions, politicians who could genuinely compete with and even defeat administrative (pro-Kremlin) candidates are not running this year. The reason is that these politicians don't pass through the "municipal filter".

4. The parties of the “mainstream opposition” are under higher pressure from the federal authorities than before – due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. This leads to the fact that their strong candidates either do not participate in the elections at all or run merely simulated campaigns.

5. CPRF candidates are the only real alternative to United Russia candidates in a number of regions. In relative terms, the CPRF party has many municipal deputies nationwide, so it is easier for its candidates to pass through the “municipal filter” without any help from the authorities. To win the elections, Kremlin nominated the so-called “spoiler parties” for the CPRF – “Communists of Russia” (running in nine regions) and “The Party of Pensioners” (running in five regions). Both “Communists of Russia” and “The Party of Pensioners” represent a similar agenda to the CPRF and serve to pull votes from the CPRF, being much more loyal to the Kremlin.

6. The rest of the parties either do not participate in the elections at all or have nominated candidates in a small number of regions. The party “Rodina” and the parliamentary party “New People” have candidates in six regions; “The Greens” have candidates in four regions, while the “Party of Growth”, the “Democratic Party of Russia”, “The Civilian Power”, the “Russian All-People’s Union”, the “Civic Platform”, the “Cossack Party”, the “Civic Initiative”, the “Party of Russia’s Rebirth”, and the “Green Alternative” each fielded one candidate. Nine parties, including “Yabloko”, did not nominate a single candidate this year.

For detailed information on each region, read the full text of the report here.