-We will find out whether this has to do with the counting [of votes], at least our own estimates strongly diverge from the results from the Election Commission, regional LDPR leader Konstanin Lukin says to Dvinainform.ru.
The party did worse than expected in the elections and got ten percent of the casted votes and two seats in the new regional parliament.
The Communists
Meanwhile, the Communist Party is content with election results. The party got 16,67 percent of the votes and five seats in the parliament. –We aimed at 20 percent support, therefore we can not be all happy with the results, however we got twice as many votes as in the previous elections, regional party leader Aleksandr Novikov says to Dvinainform. In some places of the region, among them parts of Arkhangelsk city, Severodvinsk, Novodvinsk and Plesetsk, the Communists got more than 20 percent of the votes.
United Russia
The clear winner of the election was the United Russia Party with its 51,82 percent of votes. However, the United Russia result is far worse than anticipated. The party leadership and Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk had hoped for more than 60 percent of votes. In a comment to regional media, Mr. Mikhalchuk admits that the difficult economic situation has made relations with the electorate more uncertain.
He strongly rebuffs however information about the United Russia’s alleged rigging of the election results. On the contrary, it is the opposition parties, which has used dirty tricks in the elections, he underlines to Dvinainform.
Cities vs the countryside
As noted by newspaper Pravda Severa, the election results show a higher level of support for the United Russia in the countryside than in the cities. In the Arkhangelsk city centre, it was the A Just Russia Party, which was the election winner with more than 30 percent of votes. There, United Russia got only 29 percent, closely followed by the Communists with 24 percent.
Voter turnout in the elections was 38 percent.
