The Communist Party refused to participate in the election of the governor of Primorye

The delegates of the fourth stage of the conference of the Primorsky regional branch of the Communist Party on June 24 decided by a majority vote not to participate in the gubernatorial elections. The Communists urged supporters to go and vote on the last day (voting will be three days, from September 8 to 10) against everyone, that is, to spoil the ballot, Alexander Sustov, a member of the Communist Party faction in the Legislative Assembly of Primorye, told Vedomosti. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation insists that they will not boycott the gubernatorial elections: according to an interlocutor in the regional committee, the communists will control the electoral process and call on the inhabitants of Primorye to go to the polls, “in no case to boycott them.”

The decision to refuse to nominate a candidate for governor of Primorye is connected with the massive non-inclusion of representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the composition of the formed PECs. Representatives of the Communist Party held numerous pickets in protest against the screening of fellow party members and at the end of May they announced that they would not participate in the election of the head of the region if the situation did not change. As explained to Vedomosti by the second secretary of the Primorsky branch of the Communist Party, member of the Legislative Assembly Yevgeny Lyashenko, 64% of the PECs in Vladivostok were left without representatives of the Communist Party. In four districts of the city, where protest voting is usually recorded, the Communists were included in only 20% of the PECs.

Of the 21 regions in which gubernatorial elections will be held in September, Primorsky Krai has become the only one where a candidate from the Communist Party will not participate in them. The Communists put forward their candidates in all subjects, and the current head of Khakassia, Valentin Konovalov (KPRF), was one of the first in Russia to collect signatures to pass the municipal filter, Vedomosti wrote. The federal leadership of the Communist Party was sympathetic to the situation in Primorye and left the issue of participation in the elections at the discretion of the regional committee, Yury Afonin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, State Duma deputy, told Vedomosti on June 23.

At the moment, four candidates for the governors of Primorye have been nominated: the current head of the region, Oleg Kozhemyako (United Russia), Alexander Andoni (Communists of Russia), Denis Kovalev (Cossack Party) and Kirill Rudyuk (Fair Russia). On June 24, the regional branch of the LDPR decided on a candidate, which will nominate Inna Kosheleva, a deputy of the Vladivostok Duma, for governor.

The previous elections of the governor of Primorye in 2018 had to be held twice. Due to the falsifications recognized by the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, in a number of polling stations in the second round of voting (KPRF representative Andrei Ishchenko was in the lead until the last minute in the vote count, but United Russia Andrei Tarasenko received a majority at the last moment), it was decided to hold repeated elections. Both candidates did not participate in them (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and United Russia did not nominate anyone), the self-nominated Kozhemyako won.

Political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko considers the decision of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation not to participate in the elections of the governor of Primorye after “at least convincing” performance in the last gubernatorial elections to be a bad sign. According to political scientist Rostislav Turovsky, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was unable to choose tactics for the campaign, as it fears a tough confrontation with Kozhemyako. “But he does not want to put up a weak candidate in a potentially promising region. Therefore, the party took a break, using an outwardly suitable pretext,” he told Vedomosti.