The United Russia Party, the leading Russian party headed by Vladimir Putin, got 51,19 percent of the votes, Dvinainform.ru reports. That is comfortably ahead of the A Just Russia Party (18,11%), the Communist Party (16,65%) and the Liberal Democratic Party 10,43%).
The result is still far worse than anticipated by the party. According to regional analysts, Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk worked hard to get at least 60 percent support for the party. That would increase his ranking in Moscow and secure his governor’s position, newspaper Pravda Severa reports.
The victory comes after an election campaign where the party applied strong means to secure the electorate’s support. As BarentsObserver has reported, the political opposition registered a number of grave violations of election laws.
As noted by regional analyst Vadim Treskin, the regional administration of Ilya Mikhalchuk has used all means to hamper the election campaign of other regional parties. Campaign meeting sites have been closed, election materials confiscated.
Mr. Treskin also describes how Sergey Mironov, Speaker in the Federation Council – the upper house of the Russian parliament – was rejected assembly space when visiting Arkhangelsk in the run-up to the elections. Mironov – the third highest-ranking person in the country – was also not met at the airport by governor Mikhalchuk, nor by the Arkhangelsk city mayor, Zaks.ru reports. Sergey Mironov is also leader of opposition party A Just Russia.
Elections on several levels were held this weekend in Arkhangelsk Oblast. In the city of Severodvinsk, United Russia candidate Mikhail Grymin won the city mayor’s post with 64,86 percent of the votes.
