Primorye governor elections scheduled – Kommersant

The election commission of the Primorsky Territory at its meeting scheduled the election of the governor of the region for September 10. It took place today, June 14th.

“Since no meeting of the region’s legislative assembly was scheduled within the time frame necessary for calling the elections, the elections were appointed by the election commission,” its chairman Tatyana Gladkikh told Kommersant.

Only candidates from political parties will be able to take part in the upcoming elections. Earlier, the Legislative Assembly of Primorye amended the electoral code of the region, excluding the possibility of self-nomination.

June 10 plenum of the regional committee of the Communist Party accepted the decision not to nominate a candidate for the forthcoming September gubernatorial elections in Primorye. The communists made such a demarche in protest against the mass exclusion of representatives from the party in the newly formed precinct election commissions. According to the regional committee, this creates conditions for falsification of the voting results.

According to Kommersant, incumbent governor Oleg Kozhemyako will be nominated for a new term at the United Russia regional conference scheduled for June 20. Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party announced the nomination of Andrei Andreichenko, deputy of the Primorye parliament, from the party. Representatives of other parties have not yet made relevant statements.

Recall that the previous elections of the head of Primorye in September 2018 were accompanied by a scandal. Then the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the deputy of the legislature of the region, Andrey Ishchenko, ran and entered the second round together with the acting head of the region, United Russia Andrey Tarasenko. On the decisive day of voting, the communist was in the lead after processing 95% of the ballots, but at the last moment the acting governor took the lead. The deputy announced falsifications and went on a hunger strike; actions were held in Vladivostok in support of him.

Three days later, the election results were declared invalid due to massive violations, and six days later, President Vladimir Putin appointed Oleg Kozhemyako to the post of acting head of Primorye. The regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation refused to nominate Andrey Ishchenko for re-elections because of “the understanding that it is impossible to overcome the municipal filter.” Mr. Ishchenko failed to collect the required number of signatures on his own, and Oleg Kozhemyako was elected governor in December 2018.

Alexey Chernyshev, Vladivostok