In the November State Duma election, Northwest Russia had the lowest level of support for the United Russia Party of all the seven Russian federal districts. If the results of the presidential elections will be similar, the subjects in the region will all place themselves in the lower end of the list.
The four Russian presidential candidates today have their last day of campaigning.
In the State Duma election, Murmansk Oblast had the seventh lowest result with 55,1 percent. In Arkhangelsk Oblast, results for United Russia were the 13th lowest with 56,7 percent.
Sankt Petersburg, the home city of both President Putin, Dmitrii Medvedev, as well as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, had United Russia’s second worst parliamentary election results with 50,3 percent. Only the Nenets Autonomous Okrug had a lower level of support with 48,7 percent.
However, the results from the presidential elections might end up differing from the State Duma elections. According to a poll from Arkhangelsk, as much as 62 percent of regional respondents say they will vote for Dmitrii Medvedev. The result might still be lower than the national results, which according to polls might reach as much as 75 percent of support for the Kremlin’s candidate.
According to Itar-Tass, Dmitrii Medvedev is not the one who has spent most on his election campaign. Reportedly, ultra nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovskii is the one who has spent most with 153 million RUB against Medvedev’s modest 35 million RUB.
As a matter of fact, Medvedev has returned 70 million RUB of his 190 million RUB election fund.
Medvedev does not need the campaign money however. Afterall, he has the support from all of the political establishment, and his is the man of Vladimir Putin.
Read also:
Election turnout might beat the records in Arkhangelsk (BarentsObserver, 20 February 2008)
