We are observing a decline in the willingness of parties to participate in elections

Election watchdog 'Golos' published a report on the results of the nomination of candidates for deputies of local and regional parliaments.

A special part of the report is dedicated to the organization of elections in the occupied territories. We summarized the report's key findings.

The report concludes: Russian political parties understand the impossibility of fair competition and do not want to spend effort and money on fighting United Russia. When it comes to the elections in the occupied territories, even leaving aside the question of these territories' international legal status, no voting can be held procedurally correct in the conditions of hostilities. The elections Russia is staging in the annexed territories of Ukraine cannot be considered legitimate either legally or procedurally.

Key Takeaways of the Report

1. Competition in by-elections to the State Duma is low: an average of 5.25 candidates for each vacant deputy seat. Only four old parliamentary parties actively participate in the elections - United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Just Russia – For Truth and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). The New People party refused to fight for more seats in the parliament.

2. The parties are becoming less and less active in regional and municipal elections. This year, they nominated 15% fewer lists to city assemblies. Even despite the fact that municipal deputies are the main suppliers of signatures to overcome the 'municipal filter' in the future elections of heads of regions.

3. The degradation of the Russian party system continues at both regional and local levels. Same as with the gubernatorial elections, predominantly approved party lists participate in regional elections. Their general and personal lineup causes no concern among the curators of regional elections sent by the Kremlin.

4. It is impossible for independent non-party candidates to register without the support of the authorities. To get registered, candidates are supposed to collect signatures from their potential voters, but the electoral commissions reject these signatory lists en masse. Thus, self-nominated candidates have become a disappearing category of candidates: the dropout rate was 77.7% in the regional elections.

5. 'Spoiler' candidates or parties practically do not experience problems with registration. Most of the single-mandate candidates from the Communists of Russia party were registered.

6. Democratic parties who criticize the “special military operation” failed to put up party lists in elections to regional assemblies. In elections in large cities, lists and single-mandate candidates of such parties are also rare.

7. The authorities exert pressure on the leadership of the regional branches and on the candidates themselves. The goal is to prevent the participation in the elections of those who could seriously compete with relatively weak candidates from United Russia as well as local non-systemic public figures and activists.

8. In general, the electoral situation at the municipal level seems more interesting and competitive than at the regional level. Smaller parties are more rational in their approach to local elections, which require less financial and other costs to pass the signature collection barrier, and consequently, they are more likely to pass the registration stage with less effort than at the regional level.

Despite all of this, most peculiar campaigns are taking place in a number of regions: Yakutia, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod and some other regions and cities show that some intrigue is possible.

What We Know About Elections in the Occupied Territories

The report includes a special chapter on the organization of elections in the occupied territories, so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Experts emphasize that by allowing elections under martial law, the Russian authorities officially acknowledged their readiness to ignore their own constitutional standards in ensuring free expression of will.

1. To hold elections in the occupied territories, the electoral legislation was changed: elections and referendums are now allowed to be held under martial law. However, once martial law is declared, it becomes legal to introduce military censorship. Further, the activities of political parties can be prohibited, and the freedom of movement and mass events, including rallies, can be restricted. In these circumstances, exercising basic political rights becomes impossible. The right to vote and to be elected, the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press, the freedom of movement within the country as well as the freedom of assembly and association – all those become limited.

2. Even leaving aside the question of the international legal status of the occupied territories, no elections can be held procedurally correct in the conditions of hostilities.

Firstly, the boundaries of the regions are not defined, which means it is impossible to compile lists of voters and determine their number.

Secondly, a considerable proportion of the population living in the occupied territories do not hold Russian passports. The Central Election Commission of Russia (CEC) has already announced it is possible to vote with Ukrainian documents, passports of the DPR and LPR, and even with a driver's license. Such a decision blatantly contradicts Russian electoral legislation.

Thirdly, due to the large number of residents of the occupied territories who ended up in different regions of Russia, the CEC gave its permission to set up extraterritorial polling stations enabling residents of some regions to vote on the territory of other regions. Extraterritorial polling stations are formed under a simplified procedure that does not require equal representation of political parties in their commissions. In addition, parties and candidates participating in elections are not entitled to send observers to these commissions. This makes independent monitoring of the voting and counting procedures close to impossible.

The CEC has published on its website that all parliamentary parties intend to take part in the elections in the occupied territories, including New People, participating in the elections on the territory of the DPR and LPR. The lists of candidates from different parties are provided by 'Golos' in the original report.