Incumbent governors lead in all regions holding elections, most of them from ruling United Russia party

9:19 am, September 11, 2023

According to preliminary results from the Central Election Committee, candidates from the ruling United Russia party have won 13 gubernatorial elections.

The Central Election Committee also reports that Sergei Sobyanin, incumbent mayor of Moscow, has won reelection with 76.39% of votes. Additionally, incumbent governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, received 83.68% of the votes.

The incumbent governors or acting heads nominated by United Russia won in 11 other constituent entities of the Russian Federation:

In Primorsky Krai — Oleg Kozhemyako (72.78%);
in Amur region — Vasily Orlov (82.38%);
in Magadan region — Sergey Nosov (72.39%);
in Chukotka — Vladislav Kuznetsov (72.34%);
in Nizhny Novgorod region — Gleb Nikitin (82.82%);
in Altai Krai — Viktor Tomenko (76.16%);
in Omsk region — Vitaly Khotsenko (76.33%);
in the Pskov region — Mikhail Vedernikov (86.3%);
in Novosibirsk region — Andrei Travnikov (75.72%);
in the Kemerovo region — Sergey Tsivilev (85.24%);
in Voronezh region — Alexander Gusev (76.83%).

In Khakassia and Orel region, incumbent governors representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation won: Valentin Konovalov (63.14%) and Andrei Klychkov (82.09%).

In another six regions, where the vote counts is being finalized, the leading candidates are also United Russia candidates and incumbent governors. In Yakutia, the incumbent head of the region Aysen Nikolaev is in the lead (75.77%). In Krasnoyarsk Krai, Mikhail Kotyukov has a majority (70.21%). In the Ivanovo region Stanislav Voskresensky is leads (82.49%), in the Samara region — Dmitry Azarov (83.83%), in the Smolensk region — Vasily Anokhin (86.62%), in the Tyumen region — Alexander Moore (78.77%).

In total, elections for regional heads were held in 21 Russian regions.

“Elections” for municipal and regional “parliaments” were carried out in the occupied and annexed territories of Ukraine. There United Russia claimed a majority of the votes, said Alexander Sidyakin, head of the party’s central executive committee. They claim to have won between nearly 75% and 83% of the vote.

In a statement from September 4, the Council of Europe said the “elections” in Ukraine’s occupied territories were, “a flagrant violation of international law which Russia continues to disregard,” and that holding them created, “an illusion of democracy but clearly violates the right of citizens to participate in the conduct of local public affairs.”

Election observation movement Golos reports that, “a significant contribution [to voter coertion] this year is made by reports of the use of digital technologies and, above all, remote electronic voting (DEG) for coercion.” Golos has observed a number of irregularities related to electronic voting.