Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

124 Aleksandr Kynevvoluntarily), nine in Tatarstan and the Sverdlovsk Oblast, seven inKarachaevo-Cherkessiya, six in the Altai Krai and only three in the Ust'-Ordynskii Buryatskii Autonomous Okrug.Only three parties, United Russia, the CPRF and the LDPR, put forwardlists in all the regions where elections were taking place on 14 March 2004.United Russia and the CPRF entered regional parliaments everywhere andthe LDPR entered in four out of the six regions (the party lost in Tatarstanand the Ust'-Ordynskii Buryatskii AO). It is worth noting that, in comparisonto federal voting, the indicators for United Russia fell in Altai Krai andYaroslavl' Oblast, places where elections were most genuinely competitive. InAltai Krai United Russia list gained 24.43 per cent of the vote for theCouncil of the Krai, compared to 29.96 per cent in the elections for the StateDuma, and in Yaroslavl' Oblast it was 25.98 per cent instead of 36.25 percent. United Russia’s indicators rose in places where there had been attemptsto use force to influence the electoral process: Tatarstan (69 per cent insteadof 60 per cent) and the Ust'-Ordynskii Buryatskii AO (58 per cent instead of47 per cent). There were slight increases in Karachaevo-Cherkessiya (55.87per cent instead of 50 per cent) and the Sverdlovsk Oblast (38.24 per centinstead of 34.7 per cent); competition between the lists was also less than inthe elections to the State Duma and consequently there was a minimal dispersalof votes.Regional blocs achieved considerable success in Altai Krai (For OurAltai – Communists, Agrarians and NPSR! and Supporting the President –for the Region’s Development), the Yaroslavl' Oblast (Motherland andTruth, Order and Justice) and the Sverdlovsk Oblast (Union of Ural PublicEmployees and others). In other words, the regional parties that had beenbanned by the law were effectively resurrected at the elections under theguise of regional pre-election blocs.Special mention should be made of the participation in elections for legislativeassemblies in three regions (the Yaroslavl' and Sverdlovsk Oblastsand Tatarstan) of the bloc called Rodina (Motherland). In fact this bloccame second in the elections in the Yaroslavl' Oblast. Problems occurredeverywhere in using the name of the party when registering the lists. Therewere attempts to register two blocs under this name in the Yaroslavl' Oblast,and two ‘Rodinas’ were set up in the elections in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. InTatarstan the Party of National Revival and the Socialist Unified Party ofRussia ‘Spiritual Heritage’ set up the Rodina (Republic of Tatarstan) Bloc.Originally the Party of the Russian Regions, the third founding party of thefederal Rodina, was also to have been part of the bloc, but it decided toparticipate in the electoral campaign independently, evidently not withoutadvice from the region’s administration, so as to disperse the patriotic voteSee Table 6.1).This tendency towards strengthening the role of blocs and increasing genuinecompetition became much stronger in the regional elections that beganin the autumn of 2004. It is clear that an analysis of the results of the