“United Russia” sums up the results of the preliminary voting in the new territories

United Russia (ER) summed up the results of the primaries before the elections to the legislative assemblies of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR), as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The results were somewhat unexpected: for example, the incumbent speaker of the DPR parliament, Vladimir Bidevka, lost miserably in the preliminary vote. According to Kommersant’s information, United Russia is close to deciding on the top three leaders of its electoral lists in the new territories. It is assumed that the first numbers will be the acting heads of regions. The second and third places in the DPR will apparently be taken by the winners of the primaries: the commander of the Sparta battalion, Artem Zhoga, and the general director of the republican center for the protection of motherhood and childhood, Anna Zheleznaya. In the LPR, Speaker of the Parliament Denis Miroshnichenko and State Duma Deputy Viktor Vodolatsky are expected to take the second and third positions, in the Zaporizhzhia region – the mayor of Melitopol Galina Danilchenko and a member of the council of the military-civilian administration of the region Vladimir Rogov.

Unlike other Russian regions, the primaries in the new territories were held in a mixed format: party members could make their choice online, the rest of the residents could make their choice at the polling stations. Responsible for the primaries and elections in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions is the Deputy Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia, the head of its federal executive committee, Alexander Sidyakin.

The results of the preliminary voting on candidates for the People’s Council of the DPR are published on the website of the Donetsk cell of the party dnr.er.ru. The father of the deceased commander of the Sparta battalion, Vladimir Zhoga (call sign Vokha), Hero of Russia Artem Zhoga, who replaced his son as unit commander, received the greatest support from the inhabitants of the region. True, how many votes he received is unknown: the results are published in the form of a list of winners. In second place in the DPR is Professor Anna Zheleznaya of the Donetsk National Medical University named after M. Gorky, in third place is the head of the Republican Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexei Kostrubitsky.

Elections of the first convocation of the People’s Council of the DPR within Russia are scheduled for September 10. The parliament will include 90 deputies elected on party lists. According to the law adopted at the end of May, the lists should include from 90 to 130 candidates. At the same time, they will not be divided into general and regional parts, as is done in most of the “old” subjects (candidates from the head part receive mandates in priority order, and from regional ones – in rating order). In fact, candidates will receive mandates simply in order. The number of passing places will depend on the number of parties that have overcome the five percent threshold. Among the acting Donetsk deputies, battalion commander Konstantin Kuzmin (5th place in the preliminary voting) and athlete Yulia Mikhailova (7th place in the primaries) can also count on high places in the list of United Russia. “Passing” positions were secured by the head of the “Donetsk Republic” faction (this public organization is headed by the acting head of the DPR Denis Pushilin) ​​Valery Skorokhodov (10th place in the primaries), vice speaker of the People’s Council Sergei Prokopenko (15th place), businessman Igor Pashkov (18th), ex-Minister of Information Alexander Khryakov (19th) and head of the Labor Committee Yulia Kryukova (20th). Another 29 current deputies of the DPR parliament took places from 36th to 82nd in the primaries, that is, they have a chance to be on the list of United Russia in “passing” positions. 21 current parliamentarians actually lost the preliminary vote: their positions were distributed from 92nd to 269th. Among them are the heads of a number of key committees: on constitutional legislation – Maxim Knysh (119th place), on transport – Oleg Bondarenko (135th), on defense – Vitaly Kravets (138th), on industry – Sergey Chuchin (223rd – f), according to the budget – Marina Zheynova (250th). The most unexpected outcome of the primaries was the loss of the former People’s Deputy of Ukraine from the Communist Party and the current speaker of the People’s Council of the DPR (the “Donetsk Republic” faction) Volodymyr Bidevka: he took only 178th place. Mr. Bidevka did not answer calls and requests from Kommersant; Kommersant’s source in the DPR leadership suggested that the speaker’s career would end there: “I have doubts that the party will compromise its principles and nominate losers.”

At the primaries to the People’s Council of the LPR, the results were more predictable. As follows from the published list, Denis Miroshnichenko, speaker of parliament and secretary of the Luhansk cell of the United Russia Party, became the leader of the preliminary voting. Deputies Zinaida Naden (2nd place), Yan Leshchenko (3rd) and Igor Ryabushkin (4th), as well as Vice Speaker Oleg Koval (6th) were next. On September 10, 50 deputies are to be elected to the legislature of the LPR, and, probably, the majority of the “passing” positions in the list of United Russia will be received by the current parliamentarians – at least 32 of them immediately took from the 1st to 47th lines in the primaries.

The Kherson region does not have a functioning legislative body, so the leaders of the primaries, as follows from the published results, were local officials, entrepreneurs and public figures. So, the first line was taken by the director of the Kamensky elevator, Elena Dmitruk, the second – by the head of the military-civil administration of Genichesk Elena Terskikh, and the third – by the freelance adviser to the head of Crimea, Rustem Nimetullaev. Recall that the parliament of the Kherson region will be called the regional Duma, it will include 36 deputies. Finally, the Zaporizhzhya United Russia party remains the only one who has not yet published the results of the preliminary vote (40 deputies will be included in the legislative assembly of the region).

According to Kommersant’s information, United Russia is actually close to deciding on the future leader troikas in the elections to the parliaments of new regions. In all four regions, they will be headed by acting governors: Denis Pushilin (DPR), Leonid Pasechnik (LPR), Evgeny Balitsky (Zaporozhye), Vladimir Saldo (Kherson region). For the second and third places in the regions, the approach is different. In the DPR, according to a well-informed source in the United Russia, it is assumed that these places will be taken by Artem Zhoga and Anna Zheleznaya, in the LPR – by Denis Miroshnichenko and State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky. The latter heads the Duma group of friendship with the People’s Council of the LPR. In the Zaporozhye region, the second place on the party’s pre-election lists is likely to be the mayor of Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko, and the third is the media figure, chairman of the movement “We are together with Russia” and a member of the council of the military-civilian administration of the region Vladimir Rogov.

Andrey Ash, Andrey Vinokurov