The Central Election Commission reported a 10-year record turnout for regional and municipal elections

The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday reported on the results of the Unified Voting Day (VDD) 2023. The turnout for the current regional and local elections was the highest in ten years. There were some violations and cancellation of results at two dozen polling stations, but the share of ballots declared invalid did not reach even a hundredth of a percent, emphasized Ella Pamfilova, Chairman of the Central Election Commission. The Central Election Commission recognized the elections as valid and has already begun to think about preparations for the presidential elections, which, according to Ms. Pamfilova, will be incomparable in importance with any previous ones.

According to the Central Election Commission, from September 8 to 10, a total of more than 4.2 thousand campaigns of various levels took place. These include by-elections to the State Duma in four single-mandate constituencies, direct elections of heads of 21 constituent entities, election of deputies to 20 regional parliaments and 16 city dumas of regional capitals. By September 13, almost all regions had already summed up the election results, except for the Magadan region (gubernatorial elections), Kalmykia and the Yaroslavl region (legislative assembly), where this will be done on September 14.

According to the election results, Soltan Uzdenov (Karachay-Cherkessia), Yuri Nesterenko (Crimea), Sergei Eremin (Krasnoyarsk Territory) and Dmitry Averov (Lipetsk Region), all nominated by United Russia (UR), were elected as new State Duma deputies. Among the elected governors, 19 represent United Russia and two represent the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Khakassia and Oryol region). The same two parties will be able to form factions in all 20 legislative assemblies of the new convocation, the LDPR will have factions in 19 regions, A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) – in 13, and New People – in eight.

Ella Pamfilova also provided updated data on turnout, which was a record high since 2013: 45.65% of 67 million potential voters took part in the elections.

As the head of the Central Election Commission explained, we are talking specifically about campaigns at the regional and municipal level, since turnout is traditionally higher in federal elections. 29 thousand candidates from 13 parties and 2.7 thousand self-nominated candidates (out of 13.2 thousand registered) were elected to vacant seats. These same 13 parties will be able to nominate their candidates to the State Duma without collecting signatures, but the Russian Freedom and Justice Party, following the results of the Unified Democratic Party 2023, lost this opportunity, Ms. Pamfilova clarified.

“When summing up the results of these elections, only 11 dissenting opinions of commission members with voting rights were received. Nine of them were submitted by members of commissions from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – in the Lipetsk, Amur, Rostov, Ulyanovsk, Ryazan, Tyumen, Ivanovo regions, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Moscow,” said the chairman of the Central Election Commission. One dissenting opinion was written by election commissioners from the LDPR (in the Lipetsk region) and Yabloko (in the Pskov region). “We asked the commissions for these special opinions; it is important for us to carefully study them, carefully analyze them and draw some conclusions in accordance with what the commission members paid attention to,” added Ella Pamfilova.

According to her, just over 2.3 thousand ballots were declared invalid at 24 polling stations in 14 regions. These are Bashkiria, Kalmykia, Khakassia, Moscow, Krasnodar and Khabarovsk territories, as well as Vladimir, Irkutsk, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Samara, Tver, Ulyanovsk and Yaroslavl regions. But the share of invalid ballots from the total number of issued is only 0.005%, the head of the Central Election Commission emphasized.

During the voting days, the Central Election Commission hotline received 218 messages about possible violations, Ella Pamfilova continued, the most (147) came from Moscow, with the neighboring Moscow region in second place (13).

There were 580 written appeals to the CEC, 24 of which concerned possible coercion to vote. The leader in the number of written complaints unexpectedly turned out to be the Ivanovo region, from where 102 messages came. True, 95 of them were written by one person – a “very active” representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who photographed everything and sent it to the Central Election Commission “just in case,” Ms. Pamfilova explained: “On the one hand, he added more work to us, on the other hand, thanks to the citizen for his vigilance and trust in the CEC.” Another 100 requests came from Moscow, 62 from the Volgograd region, 54 from the Moscow region and 50 from the Rostov region. “For all the voting days to date, we have not received any more complaints requiring collegial consideration at a meeting of the Central Election Commission,” Ms. Pamfilova indicated.

Almost 183 thousand observers worked in the elections this year, the head of the Central Election Commission continued. This is 83.5% of the total number of citizens declared to observe the elections, which, according to Ella Pamfilova, indicates that parties have begun to more closely monitor the work of their observers. In general, compared to the EDG-2022, the number of observers increased by a third.

The Chairman of the Central Election Commission shared her plans for the next year. According to preliminary data, more than 50 election campaigns are expected in the autumn Unified State Duma 2024, including 16 gubernatorial ones. There should also be elections to 13 regional legislative assemblies, two campaigns for the election of heads of regional capitals and 21 campaigns for the election of city dumas of administrative centers, Ella Pamfilova said.

As for the upcoming presidential campaign (elections are scheduled for March 2024), then, according to Ms. Pamfilova, “in terms of significance and impact on the future” it will not be comparable to the past.

“I have said more than once, and will have to repeat more than once, that… there have been no analogues to it yet, equal in importance and its impact on the future, not only the country. You and I have a huge, big, serious, responsible work ahead of us,” summed up the chairman of the Central Election Commission.

Elena Rozhkova