Lipetsk communists rose on garbage

At last weekend’s elections, Lipetsk communists received all the mandates in the council of a rural settlement, whose residents have been fighting against a landfill for several years. Rivals of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation explain this by the success of the protest vote. The communists themselves emphasize the effective work of observers who prevented falsifications. The expert suggests that the current result of the Communist Party will make next year’s gubernatorial elections more competitive.

Election Commission of the Lipetsk Region on Monday let me down the results of the early elections of deputies to the council of the Stebaevsky rural settlement held on December 2 and 3. 27 candidates took part in them: 10 representatives of United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, 3 from A Just Russia – For Truth and 4 self-nominated candidates. As a result, all ten mandates in the village council were received by candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the turnout was 37.81%.

The Stebaevskoye rural settlement is located 30 km from the regional center and is the largest settlement in the Lipetsk region. Over the past three years, its residents have been actively protesting against the construction of a large-scale eco-technopark in the area with a capacity of 250 thousand tons of garbage per year, which, in their opinion, could negatively affect the quality of groundwater. Local authorities explained that the future facility was necessary due to the exhaustion of the capacity of other landfills and was safe for the environment.

The last elections to the Stebaevsky village council were held in 2020 after adjustments to its charter. The number of deputy seats was then reduced from ten to seven, and all mandates were received by representatives of United Russia, who approved changes to the general plan for the construction of an eco-technopark. Last year, the Lipetsk Regional Court, at the request of local activists, invalidated the new version of the charter, after which the old composition of the council resigned, and the regional authorities announced early elections for a single ten-mandate constituency.

The regional authorities did not officially comment on the results of the elections to the Stebaevsky Village Council.

In the regional branch of United Russia, Kommersant was first reminded that of the ten nominees of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation who won in Stebaevo, only one is a member of the Communist Party, while in the Lipetsk region as a whole, United Russia members occupy about 90% of the seats in village councils, and communists – less than 9% . However, the department nevertheless recognized the fact of “insufficient work of its candidates with the population” and congratulated the Lipetsk communists “on their victory in a fair fight.” “We hope that this will improve the morale within the Lipetsk branch of the Communist Party and the deputies will stop handing over tickets. Only last week, a deputy of the regional council, who was previously a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, received a United Russia party card,” added Kommersant’s interlocutor.

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the deputy corps explain the success of the communists by the accumulation of protest sentiments among residents.

The Lipetsk cell of the LDPR even stated that it was not the Communist Party of the Russian Federation that won the elections, but the protest vote. The second secretary of the Lipetsk regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Sergei Tokarev, however, is not inclined to explain the victory by protest alone: ​​“People who want to govern their territory came to the elections. All winning candidates are local residents. They did not forgive the deputies from United Russia and decided to take power into their own hands.”

Mr. Tokarev is confident that the party did not allow even the slightest possibility of falsifying the results. 23 observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation worked at the polling station, the communist explained: “For two days the polling station was under round-the-clock surveillance, at night observers made sure that no one entered it. Also, remote electronic voting was not used in the elections. We were able to monitor both the portable ballot boxes and the voting process indoors.” True, one of the Communist Party observers was removed from the site for broadcasting what was happening on the Telegram channel.

According to political scientist Vladimir Slatinov, the Lipetsk communists have once again proven that the struggle in grassroots elections has prospects for the opposition, and the administrative resource is not omnipotent: “The fighting spirit and political activity of the local cell of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation overcome traditional attitudes.” The expert recalls that next year gubernatorial elections will be held in the Lipetsk region. “Now the communists will have a strong position in the gubernatorial elections, which will allow them to conduct a bright campaign,” suggests Mr. Slatinov. “If Igor Artamonov goes for a second term, the campaign will be difficult for him.”

Sergey Tolmachev, Voronezh