United Russia will hold primaries, including in new territories

The party in power has begun preparing for the regional election campaign – 2023, which, according to United Russia estimates, will cover at least 62.26 million voters (excluding new territories). United Russia organizes primaries in four new regions (DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions) to select candidates for legislative assemblies. This was reported to Vedomosti by two interlocutors in United Russia.

Preparations for this first phase of the campaign were discussed at a seminar at United Russia on January 26, two party sources said. According to one of Vedomosti’s sources in the party, representatives of the regional branches of the party, and from the new territories, including vice-governors for domestic policy, for example, political technologist Sergey Tolmachev, recently appointed to this position in the Zaporozhye region, participated in the meeting via videoconferencing.

Another interlocutor of Vedomosti adds that at the meeting, the federal leadership set tasks for the offices in the regions where the elections will be held, presented the campaign calendar and terms of reference for preparing for the primaries – its first stage. “United Russia” always considers the preliminary vote as a “zero wave of agitation,” said Senator Sergei Perminov, deputy secretary of the party’s general council.

The task for the primaries, according to him, is to involve 10% of voters in the regions in participation as voters. It is planned that the start of the primaries will be given from 3 to 7 March. By March 28, counting districts will be formed. From March 8 to April 27, the nomination of candidates will take place, from March 8 to May 21 – the campaign period. Voter registration will take place from April 17 to May 26.

Voting for the primaries will run from May 22 to May 28. The results will be determined on May 30th. An interlocutor in United Russia specifies that in almost all regions during the primaries, any registered voters will be able to vote, regardless of whether they have a party card (“first model”). In some subjects of the Federation, only members of the party (the “fourth model”) can be electors, the source adds.

Perminov noted that the preliminary voting will be held electronically. At the same time, it has not yet been fully determined which model will be used in the new territories – the “first” or “fourth”.

The launch of primaries in new territories is necessary, given the likely prospect of holding legislative elections there in September, said Rostislav Turovsky, vice president of the Center for Political Technologies. “And then for United Russia the selection of candidates becomes an extremely responsible task, since neither a scandal nor a mistake can be allowed. And it is very likely that they will bet on the participants of a special operation with a patriotic campaign,” he adds.

During the primaries, “the task will be to test new approaches in the semantic, technological, mobilization sphere, that is, all the methods that will already be used in preparing the 2024 campaign,” says Perminov. “We will give the regions a “broad semantic framework” and general directions, and then they will have maximum freedom to adapt them to the regional agenda,” he adds.

Senator, Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council Daria Lantratova explained that several “ideological lines” have been brought to the regions that need to be followed during the 2023 campaign. This is “cohesion” (according to the party members, “patriotism, unity have ceased to be abstract categories”) ; “heroism”, and not only at the front, but also in the rear; “care and help”; “sense of stability” (peace and development agenda); “complicity”, which is associated, among other things, with the support of new territories.

The slogan of the upcoming campaign could be: “Our way. Our faith. Our values,” says the interlocutor of “Vedomosti”. Promising themes and images will be identified for the regions “based on history and archetypes,” the source adds. One of the meanings that the party wants to convey is that United Russia is “the assembly point of the pro-presidential, popular majority”, and also that “anyone can become a candidate from the party” and that “this is an opportunity to serve the country” in this “historical” time.

At the same time, the main theme of the campaign will be “the development of the country and stability, the local agenda,” says a source in the party: “At the same time, assistance to the mobilized, volunteers, military families will continue.” The regions were told that while preparing for the campaign, they should “show flexibility in their approaches,” Lantratova said. They, in turn, should be guided depending on the situation, given that “the semantic matrix is ​​the same for everyone.”

Turovsky believes that “patriotic and social slogans are outlined” in the ideology of the campaign, which is logical: “We can talk about an attempt to test the party ideology, adapted to current realities.”

The interlocutor of Vedomosti in United Russia says that the dynamics of the special operation, as well as the mood of the electorate in the changing socio-economic conditions, should be taken into account during the elections.

The party has warned the regional branches of some other risks that arise during this campaign. In particular, according to a Vedomosti source, party members were told that in 2023 there would be an “equator” of the 2018 pension reform, as well as its fifth anniversary. It was 2018, when the increase in the retirement age was announced, that became difficult for the authorities in terms of elections – then three acting governors and one acting governor could not be elected (in Khakassia, the Vladimir Region, the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye).

These historical conditions may be superimposed by other circumstances. In any case, according to a source in the party, one must take into account the risk of increasing “critical pressure” from external sources that seek to destroy “internal harmony” and “push separatism”, in addition, an “explosive mixture” of administrative shortcomings and failures is now dangerous in communication with the authorities.

The current campaign will be a test for the party activists, including with an eye to further elections, where remote electronic voting will be used.

According to Lantratova, before the elections in the regions there is a growing need for LOMs (that is, leaders of public opinion. – Vedomosti), and not media ones, but niche ones, sometimes unknown to a large number of citizens, but they work with people. On the eve of the elections, the party should become a “platform” that will “help implement the initiatives” of such “new leaders” if they collect proposals, comment on initiatives, etc. In addition, according to her, there is now a request for “live communication” and not communication in online formats.

Before the elections, United Russia will launch its PolitStart project (it is correct to say about restarting the PolitStart project. – Vedomosti) to search for and train new candidates. Now the basis of the project will be a “patriotic semantic frame,” says the interlocutor of Vedomosti. That is, to participate in it, they will be looking for people who “showed themselves as patriots in the conditions of a special operation,” according to the presentation of the project, which Vedomosti got acquainted with.

PolitStart is positioned as a project aimed at renewing the deputy corps in the regions at the expense of those “who, through their work and service, were together with the country in difficult times.” The main participants of the project will be veterans and participants of the special operation, volunteers helping in new territories, philanthropists, military correspondents, authors of “patriotic Telegram channels”, etc. By February 17, it is planned to prepare lists of potential participants who, after training, will be able to take part in the primaries.

At the same time, according to Perminov, PolitStart itself will be focused on involving “the maximum number of those who wish” in politics, and there will be no division into participants in a special operation or volunteers.

It is important for United Russia to hold this year’s elections in such a way that they are perceived as a prologue to the presidential campaign, political scientist Turovsky believes: “Moreover, the prologue is successful. The real role of the party in the presidential elections will also depend on this.”