Some people like it early

The Moscow city committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation began “comprehensive preparations” for the election of the capital’s mayor in 2023 and deputies of the Moscow City Duma in 2024. By December of this year, the communists intend to discuss possible candidates for mayor and create a headquarters for preparing election campaigns, and by January 2023, they will form a list of candidates for the mandates of the capital’s parliament. Other parties are in no hurry to launch the 2023 election campaign, but they assure that they are already partly preparatory. The expert recalls that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation does not have the necessary number of deputies to overcome the municipal filter in the mayoral elections and an earlier start of the campaign will allow the party to start negotiations with opponents earlier than others.

The decision to start preparations for the Moscow elections was adopted at the plenum of the city committee of the Communist Party on November 6. On it, the party members summed up the results of the September elections of municipal deputies, which, according to the communists, were distinguished by “off-scale pressure on candidates from the Communist Party.” However, the city committee also admitted its own mistakes, stating, for example, that more than 300 candidates “did not issue campaign products”, and many of them did not gain a sufficient number of observers. As a result, the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not recognize the results of the elections in 23 districts of Moscow (a total of 42 deputies were elected from the party) and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to prepare for the next campaigns, taking into account past mistakes.

“Because of the growing pressure” and in order to “create the prerequisites for future victories” in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation intend to “significantly strengthen the party structure.” To this end, in particular, the Communists, as follows from the resolution, will strengthen the primary branches and train their activists, increase “the number and quality of cadres accepted into the Party”, intensify work “with working and student youth”, and also, until March next year, analyze the effectiveness of the work of their representatives in the territorial election commissions.

By December 2022, the capital’s communists are going to form a headquarters to prepare election campaigns for the election of the mayor and deputies of the Moscow City Duma, and by January they will draw up lists of candidates. At the same time, the discussion of candidates for the post of mayor will begin in primary organizations even earlier – in November 2022. Communists “preliminarily recommended” for nomination to the Moscow City Duma will be trained in the conduct of the election campaign, and will also be recruited to work in the headquarters for the election of the mayor. In addition, the Communist Party plans to increase the number of its representatives in territorial election commissions, strengthen the intra-party system for educating candidates and observers, and also intensify propaganda of party positions.

Representatives of the Moscow branches of other parliamentary parties interviewed by Kommersant said that the upcoming elections are one of the most important topics for them, but active preparations for them will begin after the New Year. Thus, Maxim Rudnev, head of the executive committee of United Russia’s metropolitan branch, said that “the party is always ready for elections, but now the priority is volunteering and helping residents of new regions.” Dmitry Gusev, leader of the Moscow branch of A Just Russia – For Truth, said that the preparation of the Social Revolutionaries for the mayoral elections consists in launching and implementing party projects in the capital related to humanitarian support for the mobilized, as well as preparing a package of proposals for payments to this category of citizens from the Moscow budget . Voters will learn about the selection of candidates for the post of mayor next year, but the selection of candidates for the Moscow City Duma is “already underway,” the party member noted. Finally, Aleksey Didenko, deputy head of the central apparatus of the LDPR, said that the party is now engaged in “strategic planning” of future Moscow campaigns: it is discussing the concept, responsible people and candidates.

The extra-parliamentary opposition will start preparing to participate in the capital elections only next year. For example, Kirill Goncharov, deputy head of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, expressed confidence that the society has a request for democratic candidates for the capital’s parliament and for the post of mayor. Yabloko will select a candidate for mayor in the primaries to be held next year, Mr. Goncharov added. He also emphasized that, as in the recent municipal elections, the party’s candidate will not only advance the city’s agenda, but also advocate “for peace.”

It should be noted that following the results of the September elections to district assemblies, none of the parties, with the exception of United Russia, did not hold the required number of deputies to overcome the so-called municipal filter. To be registered, a candidate for mayor needs to collect 110 to 115 signatures from municipal deputies representing three-quarters of Moscow’s municipalities. At the same time, opposition parties have a total of only 98 mandates (not counting self-nominated candidates), and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has the most (41 mandates).

Since the Communist Party of the Russian Federation does not overcome the municipal filter on its own, the early start of the campaign will create opportunities for it “earlier than others to enter into negotiations on the configuration of the elections of the mayor and deputies of the Moscow State Duma,” political analyst Konstantin Kalachev believes. At the same time, in his opinion, the Communist Party has enough grassroots activists and a large network of organizations that “create a good foundation for negotiations on the future Communist Party faction in the Moscow City Duma and its personal composition.” “So this is not a false start, this is an entry point,” the expert sums up.

Kira Heifetz, Maria Makutina