Russia | The war affects the elections, there is no voting in part of the Kursk region

in Russia dozens of regional and local elections and about twenty gubernatorial elections will be held on Sunday. However, some local elections have been held in the Kursk region to postpone for the time being in municipalities that are held by Ukrainian forces. According to the authorities, the vote for the governor of the Kursk region will be held as usual.

In the Kursk region, acting representative of the United Russia party is running for governor. governor Alexei Smirnovwhose president Vladimir Putin ordered to hold office earlier this year.

Voting the elections started in many regions already a couple of days ago. As for the results, no surprises are expected, as the victory of the candidates supported by the Kremlin and the ruling party United Russia has been ensured by many different ways. Genuine competition has been prevented, among other things, by excluding candidates who are genuinely opposed to the current administration.

According to the Moscow Times, in some of Russia’s ethnic republics, the main candidates are still having trouble showing that they enjoy widespread popularity, even though their election is not in danger per se. This is the case, for example, in Altai, Kalmykia, and Bashkortostan, the latter of which is reported to have suffered the worst losses of all Russian regions, falling in the war against Ukraine.

According to the Golos organization, which monitors the elections, efforts have also been made to encourage voting activity with various prizes and raffles connected to the elections. Also, the increasingly widespread introduction of electronic voting instead of ballots allows the real numbers to be distorted, the organization reminds.

Gubernatorial elections are also held, for example, in Murmansk and Kaliningrad regions and in St. Petersburg.

The regions occupied by Russia in Ukraine will be voted on Sunday for the regional parliament and the governor in Crimea.