Kremlin candidates lead in regional elections in Russia Anti-war movement in Russia: how dangerous is it to protest against Putin

In the Russian capital Moscow, there was a record result even before the polling stations closed. According to official information, participation was over 40 percent. That many Muscovites have not voted in mayoral elections for 20 years. Even when opposition activist Alexei Navalny came to power in 2013, this was only 32 percent. In a total of 85 regions of Russia, voters were asked to cast their votes at different levels.

There was no trace of election fever in Moscow, neither during the election campaign nor during the three days of voting. The rush to the polls was limited. The incumbent president, Sergei Sobyanin, was considered the clear favorite, and the opposing candidates were little known to most voters. There were reports of companies and governments encouraging their employees to vote. Voters should primarily vote electronically. On Saturday, a Muscovite woman was taken to a police station because she asked for a paper ballot at the polling station instead of voting by pressing a button, the online portal OWD-Info reports. She was fined.

For the first time, Russia also held mock elections in the occupied parts of Ukraine. From there, the authorities even reported particularly high voting numbers. More than 50 percent are said to have voted in the annexed part of Zaporizhia, more than 60 percent in the Russian-controlled parts of Kherson and Luhansk, and even more than 70 percent in the Donetsk region. The Kremlin United Russia Party was clearly in the lead.

The information could not be independently verified. There were as few independent election observers there as in Russia itself. The non-governmental organization ‘Golos’, which had repeatedly exposed violations in previous elections, was banned in advance by the Kremlin as undesirable and had its co-chairman Grigory Melkonyants arrested a few weeks ago.

Nevertheless, a number of irregularities were again reported this time: in one region, communist supporters allegedly filmed a member of the local election committee exchanging ballots. However, the Interior Ministry spoke of only a few incidents across the country that did not affect the outcome. The election commission made a mistake when the results from the Siberian region of Yakutia appeared on the voting table – twenty minutes before the last polling stations there closed. The authority later called it a technical error. Only the results from polling stations that were already closed were shown.

The preliminary results indicate a breakthrough for the Kremlin candidates. In the Far East, governors appointed by Russian leaders are consistently in charge.

The Kremlin is likely to have to accept its only defeat in the Siberian republic of Khakassia, where communist governor Valentin Konovalov, who came to power five years ago after a wave of protests, led with about 60 percent of the vote. However, the Kremlin had already acknowledged its defeat there a few days ago and removed its own candidate from the race due to alleged health problems. (sda/dpa)