Izvestia has studied the reaction of the political parties to the Prime Minister’s initiative
Vladimir Putin, together with leaders of the United Russia party and the Russian Popular Front, summed up the intermediate results of the primaries. However, as the latest survey showed, only 3% of Russians are familiar with the term ‘primaries,’ as a result of which the Prime Minister and other participants of the meeting refer to them as primary elections.
“Today, a month before the party’s first congress, we can present the list of candidates for public discussion,” Putin said. “It is important that voters are able to make a conscious choice in December.”
Head of United Russia’s Supreme Council Boris Gryzlov reported that the top segment included 830 people (10 from each entity of the federation), 219 of whom are representatives of public organisations. The most active are representatives of the Union of Russian Women (36), members of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (33), the Teachers’ Congress (24), United Russia’s Young Guard (16) and Delovaya Rossiya (16).
Although party leaders had promised to promote young people, in practice it has produced only modest results. In total, among the winners of the primaries there are 40 representatives of youth organisations, only 12 of whom are likely to get on the lists after being elected in the top five at the regional level.
Secretary of the Presidium of United Russia’s General Council Sergei Neverov proudly reported that working people had done very well in the primaries.
“There are people from very different sectors of society. Take Alexander Bogomazov for example. He grows potatoes and today is actually responsible for 3% of the country’s total potato output. If we had 300 such people the country would be fed, and everyone would have enough potatoes,” Neverov said.
The Prime Minister suggested making primaries a standard practice for all political parties after he reviewed the results of the primaries held by United Russia and the Russian Popular Front. He asked members of United Russia to bring the idea up for discussion in the State Duma and introduce the appropriate amendments to the existing laws.
United Russia deputies seem prepared to amend the legislation. Boris Gryzlov said with confidence that amendments should be made to three laws, the law On Political Parties, the law On Elections, and the law On Guarantees of People’s Electoral Rights.
However, even members of the Russian Popular Front doubted whether other parties would cope with the task of holding primaries.
“Other parties will not have the nerve or sufficient organisational resources,” said head of Delovaya Rossiya Boris Titov, but immediately decided not to discredit the idea of primaries for all parties. “The ones who pass are real parties with a serious organisational structure.”
Izvestia canvassed the opinion of other political parties on the Prime Minister’s initiative, which the parties called flagrant interference in their internal affairs.
“The existing legislation has full control over the process of the nomination of candidates. I don’t think it needs any changes,” said First Deputy Head of A Just Russia parliamentary group in the State Duma Oksana Dmitriyeva.
“The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia holds its own primaries,” said leader of the party’s group in the State Duma Igor Lebedev. “Over the course of the last three months, we have summoned all State Duma candidates to work for several weeks at the election campaign headquarters in Moscow. This is plenty of time to understand the capabilities of each candidate.”
Lebedev thinks primaries like those held by United Russia constitute interference in the internal affairs of parties.
“Primaries were very useful for the Right Cause party,” said Boris Nadezhdin, member of the Federal Political Council of the Right Cause. “We have a lot of bright people who could take part in the primaries. But I am against imposing primaries on the parties. Also, there are questions concerning the primaries of United Russia, as governors control the whole procedure.”
“Primaries are a good thing, but everything depends on the procedure prescribed by law,” said a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Vadim Solovyov. “If the law prescribes the procedure in accordance with which primaries are held by United Russia, we would be against that. Governors who organise primaries now are running them in such a way that the people they find suitable get elected.”
Anastasia Novikova, Alexandra Bayazitova
