Predictability and formalism have become the main features of elections in the Volgograd region

The voting in the Volgograd region, where no violations were officially recorded, was formal and ended with a predictable result. In the absence of political competition, independent observers and total control by the authorities, elections as such have ceased to have any real meaning, analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" stated.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, gubernatorial and municipal elections were held in the regions of Russia from September 12 to 14, including elections of city council deputies in Astrakhan. In the elections of heads of two rural settlements in the Volgograd Region, self-nominated candidates won, in the remaining 24 settlements, the majority of votes were received by candidates from United Russia.

Elections to 52 local government bodies were held in 19 municipal districts of the Volgograd Region: heads of rural settlements, deputies of city and district dumas and village councils were elected. The elections were declared valid and their results were confirmed. The voter turnout was 36.69%, the Volgograd Region Electoral Commission reported.

"The results of the elections in the Volgograd Region are 26 new heads of rural settlements. Only two of them are not members of the United Russia party. They do not represent any party at all, they are self-nominated. Representative bodies of districts and village councils acquired 185 deputies. The overwhelming majority of them are also members of the ruling party (160 deputies). The rest are representatives of other parties. It should be noted that five candidates from the New People party and two from the Pensioners' Party managed to slip into power," journalist Vyacheslav Lemkus summed up the elections in a conversation with a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Lemkus said that he was preparing material about the elections in the village of Srednyaya Akhtuba, where repeat elections of a deputy of the Duma of the urban settlement in the Sredneakhtubinsky multi-mandate electoral district No. 1 were held. The journalist admitted that the material he collected will not be published anywhere, since "the elections were typical, predictable and pale." According to Lemkus, no one recorded violations during the elections: at one polling station he did not find any observers at all, at two others they refused to talk to him, since the journalist did not have accreditation from the regional election commission. All the voters interviewed on the street by the journalist knew nothing about the candidates, did not look for information about them.

"In general, I saw apathy and indifference on the faces of the residents of Srednyaya Akhtuba I interviewed. These elections did not mean anything to them," Vyacheslav noted.

Lemkus said that three precinct election commissions were working in the district center. The turnout was "not particularly low" - 43%. 18 ballots were spoiled, but the interviewee did not connect their spoilage with protest sentiments. "The series of events is unsightly and formulaic - officials of the administration, Cossacks, the priest of the local church, young first-time voters and honorary citizen of the district Anatoly Petrov (where without him!) voted solemnly in front of the cameras. Three candidates competed. As expected, the winner was the young director of the village school, an exemplary family man Oleg Shishenin, nominated by the United Russia party. The winner has a modest annual income of half a million rubles, an apartment of 54 square meters and a VAZ-2115 car,” said Vyacheslav.

According to the journalist, Oleg Shishenin is known to the residents of the district: a graduate of the Volgograd Pedagogical University, in 2024 he was already a “deputy” on a temporary basis in the district Duma and at one time headed the Council of Young Teachers of the district. “Deputies of this level, as well as other levels, actually do not decide anything now. They create the appearance of democracy (...) In Srednyaya Akhtuba, they elected a worthy person, they were lucky. But this worthy person is not able to change the life of the district, even in the communal sphere. His deputyship is purely nominal. "It is useful for him, since he is creating a civil servant portfolio for himself, but it is useless for the district's population," Vyacheslav Lemkus summed up.

Former deputy of the Volgograd City Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (2018 - 2023) Ilya Kravchenko* noted that the elections in the Volgograd Region were "a purely formal event." He refused to analyze such "formal elections," recalling that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was once an opposition party.

"It (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) competed with United Russia for mandates, and now it does not even compete with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. The elections have finally turned into a complete formality: all oppositionists have been expelled from parliamentary parties, you cannot run for elections - they will not let you in, you cannot campaign - they will imprison you. "The cheerful 146% of falsifications turned into a sad 100% of managed democracy," Kravchenko* told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

After the "de facto ban on the Golos* movement and the beginning of the persecution of its activists, "talking about elections and democracy in Russia in general is pointless," said one of the former members of the election commissions in the Volgograd region, a participant in the observer movement, who wished to remain anonymous.

"A one-party system has firmly established itself in the country, the monopoly of the party in power. Analyzing elections at any level, monitoring their progress, tracking any violations, giving characteristics to candidates - all this is pointless in modern Russia. The norms of the Constitution do not apply," the expert told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Lawyer Sergei Ivashchenko agrees with this position. "No serious violations were recorded at all. What violations can there be with total control? There were no independent observers at the polling stations, and candidates convenient for the authorities were allowed to participate in the elections. At the same time, as they say, there were not many people willing to get into this pool of candidates, and some even had to be persuaded. What kind of analysis of the voting process can we talk about? " Ivaschenko said.

Developing his argumentation, the lawyer referred to the Volgograd Region Law No. 1373-OD "On Elections to Local Government Bodies in the Volgograd Region". The preamble to the regional law directly states the democratic foundations of the electoral process in the region: "Democratic, free and periodic elections to local government bodies are one of the forms of direct implementation of local self-government by the population, the highest direct expression of power belonging to the people. The state guarantees the free expression of the will of citizens of the Russian Federation in elections, the protection of democratic principles and norms of electoral law."

The lawyer also drew attention to the principles of holding elections reflected in the Federal Law "On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation" N 67-FZ and Article 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to which the only source of power in the country is the multinational people, and the highest direct expression of the power of the people is a referendum and free elections. "No one can usurp power in the Russian Federation, this is a requirement of the Constitution. Elections must be free. In cases where elections in a country are not free, lawyers and human rights activists should not appeal to laws, but rather defend the Constitution itself,” explained Sergei Ivaschenko.

* are included in the register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.