Political analysts state absence of interest to election campaign in Kuban residents

Much of the campaign passed unnoticed by Kuban (Krasnodar Territory) voters, since it took place in summer, while political parties lack money for lengthy campaigns, said the political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". They predict the voter turnout of 50-60%, believing that those, who have been voting for many years for one and the same party, without getting too deep into others' political agenda, will come to ballot boxes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that eight self-promoted candidates had submitted their documents for running to the State Duma, but none of them managed to collect the required number of signatures.

The press service of the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) said that the United Public Election Observation Office was set up in the Krasnodar Territory, comprising activists of the "Civil Control" Association to Protect Citizens' Voting Rights, the Public Chamber of the Krasnodar Territory, the Human Rights Council under the Governor and the Territorial Ombudsperson.

Now, the Krasnodar Territory is the leader by the number of complaints and appeals to the Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC). The website "Map of Violations" also received a lot of complaints about violations of the law during the election campaign from the Krasnodar Territory, said David Kankiya, a political analyst.

Gennady Podlesny, the President of the Centre for Applied Sociology and Politology, agrees that the voter turnout will be low, adding that residents of the Territory are poorly motivated to go to the polls.

Besides, in his opinion, residents are sick and tired not of elections as such, but of campaigns and promises. In recent years, Russia saw no examples of implementing their pre-election programmes by the parties, Mr Podlesny is sure.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.