The former head of the United Russia faction was returned to the elections to the City Duma of Yekaterinburg

The Yekaterinburg court sided with the former leader of the United Russia (ER) faction in the City Duma, Ira Ovchinnikova, who was not allowed by the election commission to run for a new convocation. The commission had questions about the quality of the signatures collected in its support, but the court ordered the former United Russia party to be registered. If this decision comes into force, then Mrs. Ovchinnikova will have to compete with Tatyana Vyatkina, whom the then head of the faction lost in the internal party primaries, after which she left the United Russia with a scandal. However, the expert recalls that decisions of lower courts to reinstate candidates in elections are often overturned on appeal.

The Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg satisfied the claim of Ira Ovchinnikova, who demanded that the decision of the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) to refuse to register her as a self-nominated candidate to the City Duma be declared illegal. The deputy believes that now the election commission is obliged to register it urgently. “Justice has prevailed. I intend to win these elections, otherwise I would not have gone there and would not have spent so much energy,” Ms. Ovchinnikova told Kommersant. “I am going to the polls for the sixth time and I am absolutely confident in my abilities.”

Recall that Ira Ovchinnikova has been elected to the City Duma of Yekaterinburg for five convocations in a row – since 2001. In 2004, she joined the United Russia, and in 2018 she headed her faction in the City Duma. However, in May 2023, Ms. Ovchinnikova lost the internal party primaries, and left the party a month later, calling the results of the preliminary vote “rigged.” The General Council of United Russia then stated that Mrs. Ovchinnikova “tied her fate” with a certain financial and industrial group, which chose “a different political trajectory” for her.

At the end of July, the former United Russia woman wrote an open letter to President Vladimir Putin. In it, she said that during the elections to the City Duma of Yekaterinburg, she “faced opposition from certain forces that united under the flag of United Russia to achieve selfish goals.”

The decision of the TEC of the Verkh-Isetsky district to refuse to register Ira Ovchinnikova was taken due to the fact that the passport data of a number of voters and individual signature collectors in the signature lists did not correspond to the data of the GAS “Vybory”. This was told to Kommersant by the head of the Lenin TEC (organizing elections to the City Duma) Vadim Antoshin. “The election commission proceeded from the requirements of the law and the established practice of both the election commission and the judicial system. In this case, the commission sees no grounds for recognizing its decision as contrary to the law. Nevertheless, the court in its decision indicated that the indication of registration at the place of residence is permissible in cases where the law requires registration at the place of residence,” Mr. Antoshin commented on the decision of the Verkh-Isetsky District Court. He added that now the commission is studying this decision with a view to filing an appeal: it has five days for this, that is, until August 12.

Political scientist Sergei Moshkin believes that the likelihood of an appeal is high, as evidenced by the current jurisprudence. He cites another candidate for the City Duma of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Borovik, as an example: the electoral committee also refused to register him, the Kirovsky District Court overturned this decision, taking the side of the ex-deputy, but the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, having considered the appeal, again withdrew him from the elections. “Judicial practice is very diverse. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the courts of first instance to decide in favor of candidates, but the decision of the appellate instance is more important, which often satisfies the requirements of election commissions,” the expert emphasizes.

Ira Ovchinnikova is running for constituency No. 4. If she can take part in the elections, then her main competitor will be the director of school No. 168, a deputy from the United Russia, Tatyana Vyatkina, whom Ms. Ovchinnikova lost the primaries in the spring. According to political scientist Moshkin, both of them are worthy candidates, and if the ex-head of the faction is reinstated in the elections, there will be “a real competitive struggle between the former representative of United Russia and the current one.”

Ilya Smirnov, Yekaterinburg