Altai Primaries: Dubious victory with support of state administration

Stanislaw Andreychuk, Leading expert, the regional coordinator of ‘Golos’ movement in the Altai region

In all the constituencies of Altai region, the candidates supported by the state administration won the ‘United Russia’ primaries.

On 22 May, the ‘United Russia’ held primaries across the country. In the Altai region, the Primary Election Day, as well as the entire campaign period, could be characterized as the time to practice the administrative methods to guarantee the ‘right’ primaries result, rather than the mechanism of internal selection of the strongest candidates. In this regard, the analysis of methods that have been used is of great importance to understand what we can expect in the region on the actual Election Day, as on the single voting day, 18 September 2016.

We would like to present a brief overview of the entire campaign – starting with selection and nomination of primaries candidates and finishing with summary of primary results.

Development of a Candidate Pool

On 18 September, the Election to the State Duma is held in the Altai region, as well as to the regional representative body - Legislative Assembly of the Altai Krai (LAAK). Thus, those in charge of primaries have a task to find candidates to the State Duma (4 constituencies and a territorial group), as well as candidates for the Election to LAAK in 34 constituencies (plus a candidate list). The task was complicated due to two reasons.

In the region there is a clear shortage of potential candidates: throughout the years the competition has been totally obstructed, therefore almost no independent political players stand for election. Moreover, the ‘administration bench’ appeared to be too short to the head of the region due to his personal characteristics. One of the main victims of the ‘cleansing’ carried out in civic society realm has become the ‘United Russia’ itself, which did not evolve into an independent force, capable to raise and to nominate its own candidates.

As a result, the region faced such a situation when the number of potential candidates the number of potential mandates that could be won by the ‘party of power’ exceeded the number of persons with sufficient resources who actually intended to fight for those mandates. There were some serious difficulties even with the nomination of candidates to the State Duma in the region. Not by accident the regional leader of ‘United Russia’ Boris Trofimov has been shifting constituencies from one to another. As a result, with joy and relief he dodged the opportunity to become a member of the State Duma. Instead, the incumbent chairman of LAAK Ivan Loor will have to take the seat at the State Duma, who, according to our information, is not so much excited about this either. With regard to constituencies in the Election to the LAAK, the situation was even more lamentable – at the first stage of registration of candidates there were almost no applicants. Only under the pressure of Moscow, the situation has changed. As a result, the campaign has finally accelerated and a certain number of candidates were 'self-propelled', but most of them were absolutely new players in the political realm and actually had no impact on the campaign.

As a consequence, there was no electoral rivalry – we could foresee the winners in all 4 constituencies in Election to the State Duma at the beginning of May. Moreover, on May 20, the fictional character Bogdan Durakov (Eng. 'Fool', wordplay), the result of collective work of the whole group of political analysts, correctly predicted 32 out of 34 winners in single-member constituencies in Election to LAAK. It is noteworthy that in both cases, only one criterion suggested the forecast - the administrative resource. Surprisingly, only due to the very limited set of criteria they managed to predict some of the results that were perceived as 'sensation' by many, such as the loss of Stella Shtan in the constituency in the Election to the Legislative Assembly.

Campaign period

A particular feature of the period preceding the Primary Election Day was the obvious contribution of regional administration to the election campaign of particular candidates. In an interview, the governor of the Altai region Alexander Karlin bluntly said that his deputy Daniila Bessarabov agreed to be nominated in the single-member constituency in the Election to State Duma. The 'politically motivated' vice-governor was present in person while signing a memorandum of primaries candidates, as well as on the Primary Election Day the official turnout results were voiced by him, clearly demonstrating that the executive committee of the state administration actually controls the inner-party activities of 'United Russia'. The election headquarters of vice-governor Bessarabov was under supervision of the regional administration. Moreover, at public events the personnel of regional administration were not even hiding this fact, simultaneously leading counter-campaign against the unfavourable candidates.

It is worth noting the primaries candidates themselves reported these facts. Thus, the current MP of LAAK Roman Trepakov who lost the primaries as a result of the business related conflict with the regional administration, a few days before May 22 shared a video record in which a district administration official acknowledged that local government officials are entrusted by Bessarabov. It reflects a blatant use of administrative resources that is why one of the most prominent public figures of the Altai region Konstantin Emeshin refused to take part in the race for the mandate in the State Duma. In his speech Emeshin referred to Bessarabov's ignorance to the political debates, though attending meetings organized at the expense of district administration. The other candidates that were much more loyal to the current regional leadership of 'United Russia' as well experienced the pressure of administration: the MP of LAAK, dear doctor, Alexander Lazarev, who previously ran as an independent candidate in the same constituency, had to declare its support to the candidacy of Besssarabov. It should be noted that before that he openly humiliated the vice-governor responsible for the social sector, degrading into a deplorable state in the region, noting that he does not know what hospice is. On the same day Oleg Akimov, deputy general director of JSC 'Resort Belokurikha', had to do the same, as his business is largely dependent on inflows from the regional budget. The vice-governor was so sure about the administrative support that he even did not bother to follow the 'mandatory program' of party primaries. For example, his profile on the website dedicated for the 'United Russia' primaries has remained totally empty during the entire primary campaign period.

In the neighbouring Rubtsovsk constituency the primaries candidate, the member of All-Russia People's Front Valery Gorbunov submitted a complaint to Dmitry Medvedev, referring to the campaign related statements of candidate Viktor Zobnev published in the newspaper, signed by the heads of Yegoryevsky, Mamontovskoye districts and the heads of Volchikhinsky, Rubtsovsk, Uglovsky administration heads. In addition, the newspaper of Victor Zobnev dedicated for the primary campaign has been disseminated in the premises of district administration.

(Photo V. Gorbunov)

In the Slavgorod constituency, the main candidate - Ivan Loor – was accused of benefiting from the regional budget by purchasing household appliances, which he distributed at the meetings with voters as the LAAK Speaker. In personal conversations, MPs confirmed that some of the premises of the regional parliament were literally overloaded with kettles, irons and TVs, which have been used for campaigning purposes by the speaker of representative body. It should be emphasized that the personnel of regional parliament office were actively involved in the party primaries.

Taking advantage of administrative resources for the campaign purposes was reported in the Primary Election to the State Duma, as well as in the race for possibility to run stand for election to the LAAK in single-member constituencies. On April 10, the regional executive committee even issued a respective warning to one of the primary candidates, but the flow of administrative resources could not be stopped. One of the most significant examples was a case when the whole team of real estate agency has joined the party 'United Russia', as the owner of the agency, Julia Mordovina, was actively engaged in the party primaries. Moreover, in the Soviet district even two heads of district administration (Soviet and Biysk) were leading campaign in support of the candidate nominated in the constituency No. 15. On April 27, the head of Rebrikhinsky district contributed to the campaign.

Primaries Day

On May 22, the primary candidates of 'United Russia' had an opportunity to feel the charm of modern elections, as the opposition usually experiences it. The most cases of electoral fraud were related to busing, ballot stuffing or forged protocols.

The first issue that you notice immediately after entering the polling station – no information on electronic vote count system, as it was initially announced. The vote count commission, at the polling station where I voted, did not even have a computer. Theoretically, I could return to the same polling station at the end of the day and cast a multiple vote, if the commission did not know me. It is interesting that the chairman of one of the city TECs was responsible for observing the commission work.

The busing that was under control of state administration became the most prominent fraud method. It should be noted that the executive committee tried to avoid accusations related to busing, saying that namely the access to primaries was provided to voters from remote areas. However, as this process was fully under control of the administration, such a 'neutral' support had to raise some questions. Actually the issue proved to be much more significant. Busing the people to vote for particular candidates was reported in almost all regions and the voters themselves were ready to talk to camera that busing was initiated by the administration with very specific objectives. At the premises of some of the vote count commissions the queues at the voter registration tables could be observed since early morning.

Teachers, doctors and other state officials were brought on yellow school buses to vote for Bessarabov in the Barnaul constituency. In addition, Oleg Akimov mobilized the buses from his territory, which were seen in the center of Belokurikha, but he failed to win against Alexander Demin, as the busing in support of the latter, according to some reports, was organized by the municipal institution 'Altai ATP'.

A similar situation could be observed in Rubtsovsk and other constituencies: in social networks the residents of Rubtsovsk complained about the involuntary voting, as well as doctors from 3rd City Hospital in Barnaul, ect.

As a result, the primary candidates could not keep silent either and by the lunchtime they and their relatives started reporting violations. For example, Natalia Tsimerzhinskaya, a secretary of the 'United Russia' and the mother of Yulia Mordovina, who en bloc initiated the party membership to her collaborators, commented the terrifying volume of busing; we could just envy Andrei Nagaitsev, the primary candidate in the Barnaul constituency, who very regularly posted information on the violations.

Most of the violations were reported in the Barnaul constituency, where Bessarabov ran as a primary candidate, who is the son of a close friend of the Governor Karlin. Namely there the ballot boxes were found unsealed and taped over with scotch what caused some allegation in regard to ballot stuffing. Moreover, the vice-governor was openly campaigning at the voting premises.

Observers were in particular surprised at the defeat of the LAAK MP Nikolai Yakushev against the director of School Food enterprise Evgeny Skurlatov who in general did not distinguish himself in the district. At the same time, it is worth remembering that in 2012 Election to Barnaul City Duma he was pointed out as one of the main initiators of carousel voting in the Industrial district. In the dining room of school No. 84 he organized meals for hundreds of voters driven around to vote and being offered special coupons. Then he did not succeed in winning a mandate in the City Duma. Apparently, this time he was just paid back. Moreover, the observers designated by Nikolay Yakushev reported that in the middle of the day they were forbidden to issue complaints.

Some other irregularities were as well reported. One of the vote count commissions has erased the name of Konstantin Emeshin from the ballot paper used for the vote in a single-member constituency in the Election to LAAK and re-introduced his name just a few hours after the opening of the vote, what actually could become a ground for cancellation of election results in that polling station.

Conclusions

The primaries reveal that the Altai region, in defiance of the federal agenda, promoted by Volodin and Neverov, relies on the administrative resources. The 'United Russia' has demonstrated that it did not evolve into a real political entity, remaining under full control of the regional government. Moreover, the All-Russia People's Front did not even try to stand up for their activists.

It is evident that the 22nd of May served as a rehearsal of the single voting day scheduled for 18 September. There is a reason to believe that the identified methods will be exposed already during the election campaign period within the next three months, if there is no harsh objection coming from Moscow.

Currently, the regional Altai administration relies on the administrative resources. However, such resources are limited - 6.5%. It is unlikely that this is the ultimate limit, but it is obvious that it will be possible to contend with such phenomenon in the region. Of much greater concern is the fact that election commissions are obviously under control of the 'blue house'.

However, it is important to bear in mind that on the Election Day in the Altai region the federal politicians will run for election, so such a focus on simply forged voting results can turn into a very big scandal. However, the federal government has no interest in it. Considering all these circumstances, the plans of regional administration might come to naught, as any other methods were not tested in spring.

The Source: Blog of S. Andreychuk