| Yesterday, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre
(VTsIOM) summarized the results of the "Vote for the Country"
preliminary voting experiment. The poll was conducted on three election
districts in three cities - Belgorod, Vladimir, and Kyshtym near Chelyabinsk.
(VTsIOM selected these cities, as the results of the latest two parliamentary
elections there in 1995 and 1999 had been closest to the average results
for Russia as a whole.) Belgorod was chosen as a representative of the
so-called Red Belt, while Vladimir represented Central Russia with its
distinct left-wing bias. Kyshtym was chosen as a politically neutral industrial
center in the Urals.
Respondents were given copies of ballot papers. The voting was anonymous.
There were 6,000 respondents. The United Russia party won the "preliminary
election" in all three cities, with 32.7% of the vote (6.5% more
than in the last opinion poll done by VTsIOM on November 15 and 16). The
rating of the Communist Party hit a record low. The Communists got only
14.3% of the vote, against 19.6% in the latest opinion poll (in the election
of 1999, the Communists got 24.2%).
The LDPR was third, with 8.7% (5.9% in 1999). The Union of Right-WingForces
recorded 7.5% (8.5% in 1999), and Yabloko got 5.2% (5.9%). Quite unexpectedly
for many observers, the Motherland bloc led by Dmitry Rogozin and Sergei
Glaziev, and the Party of Pensioners, almost passed the 5% threshold.
Dmitry Polikanov, VTsIOM's director for international and public contacts,
claims that the November 22 experiment and regular opinion polls indicate
an impressive lead for United Russia, a loss of voters by the Communist
Party, and a simultaneous growth in the left-wing electorate.
Arnold Uvarov of the United Russia campaign team is quite satisfied
with the results of the experiment, but says United Russia will perform
even better in the real elections. "We have not done everything we
plan to do to attract voters," Uvarov said.
Ivan Melnikov of the Central Committee of the Communist Party calls
the results of these "primaries" biased and rigged to suit United
Russia. "It isn't hard to see that by declaring that the
Communist Party got only 14.3%, the organizers of this show are preparing
voters for upcoming fraud at the real elections," Melnikov said.
Sergei Mitrokhin of
Yabloko views this kind of event as a publicity stunt aimed to condition
the electorate. Igor Bunin, director of the Political Techniques Center,
believes that the gap between United Russia and the Communists on December
7 will be considerably less impressive. Oleg Matveichev of the Bakster
Group Moscow office thinks likewise; he says that political consultants
have been doing this for years v releasing results of test polls and other
surveys in order to influence the outcome of elections. Political consultant
Gleb Kuznetsov says that releasing the results of this experiment is just
an attempt to convince the public that United Russia has been promoted
successfully and the CPRF has been discredited.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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