While Russian troops continue their Special Military Operation in the neighboring country, this Sunday marks the last day of voting that began on Friday in 65 regions, including for the first time the four taken from Ukraine last year, where the vote is still in force. Martial law. The mayor of Moscow, 21 regional governors, deputies of 20 local assemblies, councilors of numerous municipalities and federal deputies of four territorial entities must be elected.
This time there has hardly been a campaign or it has gone almost unnoticed by most of the population. What has not ceased has been the constant harassment of the disorganized opposition to keep them as far away as possible and prevent them from influencing the electorate.
The Kremlin has put all its efforts to guarantee the victory of its party, United Russia, since the next call will be the presidential elections and, barring any surprises, they should take place in March 2024, probably with the current president of the country. , Vladimir Putin, as the main candidate. So, for those in power, it is about checking the behavior of the voters and the street.
Putin voted this Saturday, casting his virtual ballot over the Internet, a moment that was broadcast on public television while calling on the population to go to the polls. The practice of establishing several voting days, criticized by the opposition because it facilitates fraud, arose as a result of the Covid pandemic, but remains in force, since, in the opinion of the authorities, it allows a greater influx of voters to the polling stations .
“Without any suspense”
The Russian NGO “Golos”, which tries to monitor the electoral process and whose deputy head, Grigori Melkoniants, was arrested in August and his home subjected to a severe police search, considers in a report these local elections as “boring, inconsistent and without “no suspense” due to the lack of competition between candidates. Furthermore, in several regions bordering Ukraine, voting has had to be postponed due to the war, such as the towns of Shebekino and Zhuravlióvka in the Belgorod region.
From prison, Russia’s main opponent, Alexei Navalny, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence, has called on Russians to go to the polls, not to achieve victory, something he considers impossible in an “authoritarian country.” , but to “maintain custom, since sooner or later the elections will be free.” Navalny proposes, as he already did in previous years, to resort to the “smart vote”, consisting of voting for any candidate who is not from the United Russia government party.
The Russian dissident recalls that in 2011 the ruling party lost in several constituencies to its adversaries from other parties and, according to him, “the deceptions perpetrated to certify fraudulent results provoked protest movements.” In those demonstrations there were thousands of arrests and now, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the repression has intensified to the maximum against any type of dissidence, which suggests that, no matter how much the results of the current elections are manipulated, It does not seem plausible that a large protest movement will occur.
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