Liberal democrats are ready to repeat
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LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky may become the first number on the party lists in the 2023 elections to regional parliaments, as did the late party founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The LDPR believes that this will give Mr. Slutsky an advantage over other representatives of the parliamentary opposition in the 2024 presidential election. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the party stipulate that this is still only one of the options for the electoral strategy. Experts consider this scenario logical and agree that the regional elections will help the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party to increase recognition as a presidential candidate. However, his name at the head of the lists may not have the best effect on the results of the party itself, political analysts warn.
The fact that the LDPR is discussing an option in which the regional lists of the party in the September elections will be headed by its chairman Leonid Slutsky was reported to Kommersant by State Duma deputy from the LDPR Stanislav Naumov. “This is one of the options. He was discussed at school with activists in Ulyanovsk. The activists asked if this option is possible. They ask that Leonid Slutsky, in the development of the tradition of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head their lists in the elections to legislative assemblies, ”the deputy explained. The final decision will be made closer to the election, when the Liberal Democratic Party decides on its lists of candidates, the party member said, adding that the Liberal Democrats have yet to explore all the arguments in favor of this option. It is also possible that Mr. Slutsky will head the lists not everywhere, but only in electorally significant and priority regions for the Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Naumov noted. “Of course, this decision will also help Leonid Slutsky get some head start over his opponents in the upcoming presidential elections. Neither the leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov, nor the chairman of A Just Russia – For Truth, Sergei Mironov, can make such a decision, ”the liberal democrat cited another argument.
Leonid Slutsky told Kommersant that he would not comment on this information for the time being.
The deputy head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma, Yaroslav Nilov, reminded Kommersant that Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as chairman of the party, headed all the lists with one practical goal – “to have his name on the ballot and thus attract the attention of voters.” “But the most important thing is that according to the current legislation, only a candidate has the right to campaign for the corresponding list in the election campaign of the corresponding level. We included Zhirinovsky so that his image and voice could be used in the commercials. Based on the existing tradition, this cannot be ruled out, although this was not the case in the last election cycle,” Mr. Nilov said.
Recall that the law banning the use of images of people who are not candidates in campaign materials was adopted in 2016. The authors of this initiative were precisely the deputies of the LDPR faction, headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky himself, who before that had regularly been the first number of party lists in elections at various levels.
In the fall of 2018, the leader of the LDPR also personally headed the lists in the elections to all parliaments of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and city councils of regional capitals (they will be re-elected in September 2023). Then the liberal democrats got their maximum result in the Trans-Baikal Territory (24.6% of the vote), and the minimum – in Kalmykia (3.43%). In 2022, when the first elections “without Zhirinovsky” were held, the party decided to appoint the coordinators of its regional branches or well-known deputies as the leaders of the party lists. As a result, the most successful was the performance of the Liberal Democratic Party in the elections to the Parliament of the Udmurt Republic, where the party won 13.64% of the vote. The worst result was in North Ossetia, where the Liberal Democrats did not enter parliament at all, gaining only 1.57% of the vote.
Yevgeny Minchenko, president of the Minchenko Consulting communication holding, suggests that in the upcoming regional elections, the Liberal Democrats intend to implement a scheme with the leader of the party at the head of the lists: “The LDPR considers this one of its “chips”. Indeed, if Slutsky tops the lists everywhere, his recognition will increase, and this will give him a handicap in relation to other presidential candidates. Especially if they are not the leaders of these parties, who traditionally act as candidates from them. For example, if Zyuganov is not the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and not Mironov from the SRZP, then Slutsky will have a handicap in the elections.
Political scientist Alexander Kynev agrees that participation in regional elections as the first number of party lists will increase the recognition of Leonid Slutsky. But this will worsen the situation with the results of the Liberal Democratic Party as a whole, the expert suggests. “Slutsky himself does not have popularity and charisma. There was virtually no campaign last year, the Liberal Democratic Party conducted it on old stocks. Nothing happened, and people voted based on electoral memory. As soon as something new starts to happen, it will overshadow the past, and the new agenda with Slutsky may not be in his favor, ”explains Mr. Kynev. In addition, the Liberal Democratic Party cannot “infinitely portray Zhirinovsky alive,” the political scientist emphasizes, “and the more they promote Slutsky, the more the memory of Zhirinovsky will fade.”
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