Measure seven, cut two – Newspaper Kommersant No. 154 (7355) of 08/24/2022

On Tuesday, two candidates for the head of Karelia at once – from the Party of Growth and the Party of Pensioners – announced their voluntary withdrawal from the elections. Both reported that they see a worthy candidate in the current leader of the republic, Artur Parfenchikov, and therefore, in fact, refuse to run for election in his favor. They explain the synchronicity of their actions by chance. This year, the gubernatorial elections in Karelia became a record both in terms of the number of nominees (13 people) and the number of registered candidates (7). But now, just like in most regions, only five candidates will remain on the ballot.

The desire of the candidate from the Party of Growth Dmitry Fabrikantov and the nominee of the Party of Pensioners Valery Taborov to withdraw from the elections by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Karelia was announced with an interval of half an hour. They recalled that a registered candidate has the right to apply for withdrawal no later than five days before the first voting day (that is, until September 4, since voting will be held in Karelia from September 9 to September 11), and if there are “forcing circumstances – no later than a day before. “This application is not subject to withdrawal,” the CEC noted, adding that the commission will consider the appeals within three days.

The reasons for such decisions of candidates in the commission were not named. According to the GAS Vybory, 42-year-old Dmitry Fabrikantov works as the general director of JSC Petragranit, and 41-year-old Valery Taborov is the chairman of the republican branch of the Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy of Russia.

“According to a survey of residents, Artur Olegovich (Parfenchikov.— “b”) is a clear and absolute leader. In our programs there is not exactly similarity, but our main ideas for the development of the Republic of Karelia, for the development of industry (coincide.— “b”), – Mr. Fabrikantov told Kommersant. – It makes no sense to fight with a like-minded person. Realizing that I would not get votes, I decided to withdraw my candidacy. Let my voter, if he decides so, will vote for Parfenchikov.”

The deputy chairman of the central council of the Pensioners’ Party, Vladimir Vorozhtsov, told Kommersant that Valery Taborov personally made the decision to abandon the fight for the post of governor: “It was not a decision of the party leadership.” At the same time, Mr. Vorozhtsov mentioned that the party was collecting instructions from residents to the future governor, and Artur Parfenchikov “is ready to implement them in many ways.” “Based on this, in the conditions of the NMD, in order not to create unnecessary contradictions in a rather difficult region bordering a NATO country (Finland, which borders on Karelia, has applied to NATO, but is not yet a member of the alliance.— “b”) and requiring a special unity of views, the candidate personally made such a decision,” the politician explained.

He addressed Kommersant’s questions about the synchronism of the actions of Valery Taborov and Dmitry Fabrikantov to the Party of Growth. Mr. Fabrikantov himself, in turn, said that he had learned about the removal of Mr. Taborov from the elections from a Kommersant correspondent.

Recall that the election of the head of Karelia was a record number of participants among the gubernatorial campaigns-2022. Already on the third day after their appointment, the republican cell of United Russia nominated Artur Parfenchikov, after which New People and eight other non-parliamentary parties announced their candidates. With an interval of half an hour, the CEC of the republic published the same type of messages about candidates from the Green Alternative, the Growth Party, the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice, the Pensioners’ Party, the Communists of Russia, the Cossack Party, the Democratic Party of Russia and Motherland. The parties of the “old” parliamentary opposition put forward candidates a few weeks later. As a result, the number of participants reached 13 people – the largest in recent years (self-nomination is not provided in the republic).

At the registration stage, the number of candidates from “small parties” decreased from 8 to 4. At the same time, half of the candidates from the parliamentary opposition unexpectedly also failed to overcome the “municipal filter”: representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party and New People did not get the required number of autographs from municipal deputies. The Liberal Democrats then declared that the situation in Karelia “raises many questions,” and the Duma newcomers called the “municipal filter” an atavism. The candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) had no problems with signatures.

After the removal of Dmitry Fabrikantov and Valery Taborov from the race, five candidates will remain on the ballot: Artur Parfenchikov (ER), Deputy of the Republican Legislative Assembly Yevgeny Ulyanov (KPRF), Deputy of the Petrozavodsk City Council Andrei Rogalevich (SRZP), self-employed Ivan Kadayas (Motherland) and unemployed Anatoly Dudarin (Democratic Party of Russia). Five people is the most common number of candidates in the 2022 gubernatorial elections, there are more of them only in Udmurtia and the Kaliningrad region – six each. In total, direct elections of heads will be held in 14 subjects.

Recall that in the first elections for him in 2017, the ex-director of the Federal Bailiff Service Artur Parfenchikov, being acting governor, scored 61.3% of the vote. At that time, only candidates from the “old” parliamentary troika opposed him. Roine Izyumov, the chairman of the Karelian branch of the SRZP, Roine Izyumov believes that Dmitry Fabrikantov and Valery Taborov could “take” “two or three percent” of the votes from Mr. Parfenchikov in the current elections, and therefore they decided to “remove” them.

Political consultant Yevgeny Minchenko believes that the candidates who withdrew were used to “pull” the signatures of municipal deputies necessary for registration in the elections, and now they are no longer needed. “It is possible that the figures (according to sociological surveys.— “b”) do not give Parfenchikov a confident victory in the first round, so it is better to reduce the variance of the future result by minimizing the number of participants. Even if the incumbent governor has 60%, it cannot be guaranteed that it will be 60% of the turnout. It is better to play it safe, this is an adequate technological move,” the expert sums up.

Andrew Ashes