“United Russia” will approve the lists of candidates for elections in the new territories on August 2

The United Russia party plans to hold conferences to approve the lists of candidates for elections in the new territories on August 2. This was told to Vedomosti by two interlocutors close to the presidential administration and one of the party members. According to a Vedomosti source close to the presidential administration, in all four new regions, the United Russia campaign will start at the same time – on August 2. The interlocutor explains the decision to shorten the campaign and start it at the same time with security issues. At the same time, according to him, the campaign will not be financially costly: “The main task now is to hold elections.”

In May, a law was adopted that allows elections to be held in new constituent entities of the Russian Federation even if martial law is introduced (it is in force in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions). The amendments also made it possible to shorten the period of electoral actions. As a result, the CEC scheduled elections in the new territories on June 15 after consultations with the FSB and the Ministry of Defense and at the suggestion of the heads of regions – as required by the new legislation.

The nomination of candidates in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions will not begin in early June, as in the whole of the Russian Federation, but only on July 24 and will last until mid-August, spoke on July 5 Head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova.

According to one of the United Russia members, the party is sympathetic to the fact that the timing of electoral actions there will be reduced, since this is due to security considerations. Another United Russia confirms that August 2 is seen as a “highly likely date” for the conferences. At the same time, he notes that if the military situation worsens, then elections will not be held only in a specific territory, and not in the entire region: “Cancellation, if necessary, will be targeted. But so far there are no grounds for not holding elections.” On July 3, Pamfilova reported to President Pamfilova that “elections in this or that region” could be postponed if “circumstances of unforeseen force” arose.

State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky, who represents the Luhansk People’s Republic on Okhotny Ryad, told Vedomosti that the regional branch had sent United Russia General Council Secretary Andrei Turchak a proposal to hold a regional conference in the first week of August. According to Vodolatsky, the list of candidates for parliament will be headed by the acting head of the region Leonid Pasechnik, himself a State Duma deputy and chairman of the people’s council Denis Miroshnichenko.

Kommersant wrote that in other regions the lists will also be headed by the interim. According to the newspaper, the winners of the primaries will take the second and third places in the DPR: 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 Zaporizhia region, the top three will include the mayor of Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko, and a member of the council of the military-civilian administration of the region, Vladimir Rogov. In the Kherson region, at the primaries, the first place was taken by the director of the Kamensky elevator, Elena Dmitruk, the second place was taken by the head of the military-civil administration of Genichesk, Elena Terskikh, and the third place was taken by Rustem Nimetullaev, a freelance adviser to the head of Crimea. The results of the primaries are currently not available on the website.

Among the candidates for deputies there may be many new people who go into politics for the first time, says the deputy secretary of the United Russia general council Daria Lantratova, a senator from the LPR. “Candidate nomination conferences are an important cut-off for the political process in the LPR and other new subjects of the Federation,” she notes. “In these regions, they will be held for the first time after joining the Russian Federation – in fact, we are entering the finish line before the renewal of representative power in new regions.” The emergence of LSG bodies is also important, Lantratova said.

At the same time, both local self-government elections and parliamentary elections will be held only according to lists. The heads of the regions will be elected by legislative assemblies.

The question of whether elections will be postponed somewhere in the new territories or not depends on the situation on the line of contact, but now there are no clear prerequisites for curtailing campaigns in any areas, says political scientist Konstantin Kostin: “Just a reduction in electoral actions and necessary to ensure safety. Elections are part of the political integration of the regions, he said.