MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Election campaigns of governors who will be elected directly in Russia after an eight-year break may start on Thursday.
The first regions that will elect their governors on the single voting day on October 14 will be Amur, Belgorod, Bryansk and Novgorod.
“Under the effective legislation the elections should be announced in the period from 100 to 90 days from the date of voting, i.e. from July 5 to July 15,” the Russian central election commission (CEC) told Itar-Tass.
According to the CEC, the Novgorod region plans to make a decision on the start of its election campaign already on Thursday.
CEC deputy chairman Leonid Ivlev recalled that by July 1 Russia’s 83 regions adjusted their election legislations in compliance with the Constitution and federal laws.
Thus, “all 83 regions introduced direct governor elections,” he said.
The legislations of those four regions, where the election campaign should begin during these days, envisage no opportunity for self-nominated candidates to run for governorship. This means that only political parties can nominate their candidates. At present, the talk is about seven parties officially registered by the Ministry of Justice.
“Every day the central election commission monitors the registration of parties, but until now we have no new parties that can compete in the elections,” Ivlev said. A new party has the right to nominate its candidate for governorship after it registers its regional offices in more than half of Russian regions, i.e. in more than 42 regions.
Until now none of the newly registered parties managed to do this. If a new party fails to register its regional offices until the official start of the governor elections, it will be unable to participate.