The leader of United Russia in the City Duma of Yekaterinburg left the party due to lost primaries

Ira Ovchinnikova, head of the United Russia (ER) faction in the Yekaterinburg City Duma, announced her withdrawal from the party after losing in the preliminary vote of the party in power to select candidates for the new convocation of parliament. The deputy claims that at first they tried to dissuade her from participating in the primaries, and then they simply rigged their results. The federal United Russia claims that Ms. Ovchinnikova deliberately did not show activity during the preliminary voting, as she had long ago decided to run in the upcoming elections as an independent candidate or from another party. For the latter option, exit from the EP is necessary, the expert explains.

The decision of Ira Ovchinnikova to leave United Russia became known before a meeting of the Yekaterinburg City Duma on Tuesday, June 20. The deputy explained to a Kommersant correspondent that she was leaving the party because she did not agree with the “rigged” results of the preliminary vote.

According to the results of the primaries, which took place back in May, the leader of the faction took impassable places: according to the list, she finished 28th, having received the support of only 2.3 thousand electors (for comparison: 56.4 thousand voted for the leader of the list, the head of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov . people), and in constituency No. 4 – only third (527 votes), yielding to his colleague, United Russia deputy Tatyana Vyatkina (5.6 thousand votes), and non-party businessman Alexander Shadrin (556 votes).

Ms. Ovchinnikova claims she was pressured before the vote: she was asked not to participate in the primaries, without explaining why she should do so. Who exactly was behind this request, the deputy did not specify, but added that she plans to run for the new composition of the City Duma either as an independent candidate or from another party, if such proposals are received. “I feel a responsibility to the voters who have trusted me for over 20 years. There are still issues that need to be addressed, and I am ready to deal with them as a professional,” she stressed.

Ira Ovchinnikova is one of the most experienced deputies of the Yekaterinburg City Duma. She has been elected a deputy of five convocations in a row since 2001, while simultaneously working as the head of the Pension Fund department in the Verkh-Isetsky district of the regional center. She joined United Russia in 2004, and in 2018 she became the head of the faction.

The press service of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Kommersant party in power explained that they had not yet seen Ira Ovchinnikova’s statement about leaving the party. It was not received by either the local, primary or regional department, and therefore the press service refused to comment on it in essence.

Sergei Perminov, deputy secretary of the United Russia General Council, in turn, told Kommersant that Ira Ovchinnikova simply did not show the activity necessary for victory in the primaries. “As far as we know, about six months ago, she tied her fate with one financial and industrial group. And she chose a different political trajectory for her. Her partners would like her to run from a party close to them or as an independent candidate,” Mr. Perminov said and assured that such cases in United Russia are isolated.

Political scientist Sergei Moshkin explains that promptly leaving the party is a necessary step for Ira Ovchinnikova if she really wants to continue her political career. “Now she has two options: either to become a self-nominated candidate, and then she needs to go through the signature collection procedure, or to be nominated by another party. But by law, she cannot be nominated from any party while she is in the United Russia, ”the expert explained, adding that this is a typical story for deputies who lost the primaries.

Andrei Rusakov, director of the Center for European and Asian Studies, called the situation “a change in the political generation.” Ms. Ovchinnikova is “a product of the political system of the past” and therefore now “is no longer of value to the authorities,” the expert believes. “She does not have strong supporters, including within the party, otherwise she would have been left. There is no significant electorate behind her, otherwise she would not have lost in the primaries. She was not remembered for any loud political statements or bright roles, ”Andrey Rusakov believes. According to him, Ira Ovchinnikova, with all her positive qualities, was “a common element of the political structure that was built back in the days of Arkady Chernetsky (the first head of Yekaterinburg, held the post until 2010.— “b”), when the Duma was needed to legitimize the city government”.

Ilya Smirnov, Yekaterinburg