The Primorsky Krai gubernatorial election was held on 9–16 September 2018. In the first round, held on 9 September (which was the common election day in Russia), none of the candidates received an absolute majority. The candidates proceeding to the second round, scheduled for 16 September, were incumbent Acting Governor Andrey Tarasenko, nominated by the

United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...

, and

Andrey Ishchenko Andrey Sergeyevich Ishchenko (russian: Андрей Сергеевич Ищенко; born 9 March 1981), is a Russian politician who currently serves as a member of parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai. Biography Andrey Ish ...

, nominated by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. The second round of election was subject to public protest due to perceived inconsistencies in the counting of votes. During most of the counting, Ishchenko was in the lead by a margin of around 5%. However, after 95% of votes had been counted, Tarasenko began to gain ground. By 99% counted, he had gained a lead over Ishchenko. The official final results indicated Tarasenko had won with 49.55% of votes to Ishchenko's 48.06%, a margin of 7,650 votes. The sudden shift in the results triggered accusations of electoral fraud, and the Central Electoral Commissions sent representatives to Primorsky Krai to review the situation. On 19 September, they recommended invalidating the election results. On 20 September, the Regional Election Commission followed this recommendation and officially invalidated the results, leading to a new election held in December.

Previous events

Previous gubernatorial election in Primorsky Krai were held on 14 September 2014,

Vladimir Miklushevsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Miklushevsky (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Миклушевский; born on 15 September 1967), is a Russian politician who is currently the rector of the Moscow Polytechnic University since 29 Decemb ...

was elected as Governor. On 4 October 2017, he resigned, and Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

appointed Andrey Tarasenko as Acting Governor.

Candidates

Five candidates were registered to participate in the election

Background

Three months before these elections, in June 2018, the

government of Russia The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...

announced the very unpopular pension reform presuming a gradual increase in the

retirement age This article lists the statutory retirement age in different countries. Background In some contexts, the retirement age is the age at which a person is expected or required to cease work. It is usually the age at which such a person may be enti ...

by five years. The planned reform has provoked countrywide protests. For this reason, the elections proceeded on a background of an aversion to the governmental party “

” (which was the only party in the parliament supporting the reform) as to the betrayers. In the second round, the anti-reform forces were consolidated around Ishchenko as a person not belonging to that party. So, despite Tarasenko has unequivocally won the first round, Ishchenko succeeded in obtaining a comparable number of votes in the second round.

Results

September 2018 Primorsky Krai gubernatorial election map

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2", Candidate ! style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2" colspan="2", Party ! colspan="2", 1st round ! colspan="2", 2nd round , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % ! width="75", Votes ! width="30", % , - , style="background-color:;", , style="text-align:left;", Andrey Tarasenko , style="text-align:left;",

, UR , , 46.56 , , 49.55 , - , style="background-color:;", , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:left;",

, CPRF , , 24.63 , , 48.06 , - , bgcolor=#c50d13, , style="text-align:left;",

Yulia Tolmacheva Yulia ( Юлия) is a female given name, the equivalent of the Latin Julia. It can be spelled Yulia, Yulya, Julia, Julja, Julija, Yuliia, Yuliya, Juliya or İulia. An alternative spelling is Ioulia/Gioulia (Greek) or Iuliia. Prononciations can diff ...

, style="text-align:left;", Party of Pensioners , RPPSJ , , 10.80 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="2" rowspan="3", , - , style="background-color:;", , style="text-align:left;", Andrey Andreychenko , style="text-align:left;", Liberal Democratic Party , LDPR , , 9.27 , - , style="background-color:;", , style="text-align:left;",

Alexey Kozitsky Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Al ...

, style="text-align:left;", A Just Russia , JR , , 4.83 , - , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="8", , - style="font-weight:bold" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Total , , 100.00 , , 100.00 , - , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="8", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Valid votes , , 96.09 , , 97.61 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Blank ballots , , 3.91 , , 2.39 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Turnout , , 30.23 , , 35.43 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Registered voters , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;", , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;", , - , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="8", , - , style="text-align:left;font-size:90%;" colspan="8", Official results published by the Primorsky Krai Electoral Commission Exit polls on the day of the second round have also shown a victory of Tarasenko.

Fairness of election

After counting 95% of the protocols of the second round, the candidate from the Communist party Ishchenko won by a significant margin — 51.6% against 45.8%. After processing 99% of the protocols, the ratio changed in favor of the incumbent Acting Governor Andrey Tarasenko — 49.02% against 48.56%. In particular, according to the CEC website, if we compare the results after processing 98.77% of the protocols and after processing 99.03% of the protocols, the results of Ishchenko fell by 5 votes, and Tarasenko grew by 13,595 votes. Representatives of the Communist party announced massive fraud in favor of Tarasenko in the vote count. Andrey Ishchenko declared falsifications in the cities

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

, Artyom,

Nakhodka Nakhodka ( rus, Нахо́дка, p=nɐˈxotkə) is a port city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trudny Peninsula jutting into the Nakhodka Bay of the Sea of Japan, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai. Po ...

and Ussuriysk and declared

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

. In addition, 13 protocols are still being held and not published in one of the districts of Vladivostok. In turn, the election headquarters of Andrey Tarasenko accused rivals of bribing voters. On the night after the elections, during the counting of votes in the Territorial Election Commission of the Sovetsky district of Vladivostok (it is located in the building of the district administration), firefighters broke in. They said there was a call, that the fire alarm went off. They demanded that members of the electoral commission and observers leave the polling station. At the same time, there was no smoke or other traces of fire in the building. Members of the electoral commission were forced to leave the building, leaving the electoral documents. Subsequently, on 18 September, the Regional Election Commission canceled the results of voting at 12 polling stations accountable to the Sovetsky district Territorial Election Commission. A similar situation has developed in other cities of Primorye. For example, the Territorial Election Commission building of the Ussuriysk urban district was cordoned off by police officers. When the member of Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai Anatoly Dolgachev and member of the

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

Yury Afonin Yury Vyacheslavovich Afonin (russian: Юрий Вячеславович Афонин; born March 22, 1977, Tula, RSFSR, USSR) is a Russian politician and member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the Communist Party of the Russian F ...

tried to get there, they were told that it is impossible, as "the lock is broken".

Annulation of the results

On 17 September, Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission

Ella Pamfilova Ella Aleksandrovna Pamfilova (; born 12 September 1953) is a Russian politician, former deputy of the State Duma, candidate for president in 2000 and former chairman (2004 - 2010) of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. On ...

asked the candidates to provide the CEC with materials on possible violations and said that the results of the election will not be approved until the CEC examines all complaints. On 19 September in Primorsky Krai came to a special commission of the CEC to verify complaints of violations in the election. Since the election of the Governor is within the jurisdiction of the Regional Election Commission (REC), the Central Election Commission cannot influence them, but it can make recommendations to the REC. On 19 September, the CEC unanimously recommended to recognize the results of the gubernatorial election invalid.Решение по итогам выборов примет избирком Приморья, заявила комиссия ЦИК
/ref> The final decision of annulation was accordingly taken by the Regional Election Commission on 20 September.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018 09 Primorsky Krai gubernatorial election Primorsky Krai September 2018 events in Russia Politics of Primorsky Krai Political controversies in Russia Annulled elections