Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

Electoral reforms and democratization 139all court cases ten lists were registered and appeared on the voting papers inthe Sverdlovsk and Astrakhan Oblasts, and also in the Primorskii Krai;there were nine lists in the Novgorod Oblast and eight in the Lipetsk Oblast.Overall there were fewer enforced exclusions of party lists from electionsduring the electoral campaign of autumn 2006. In this respect it was considerablydifferent from the preceding electoral campaigns at the start of2006 and the end of 2005. It is possible that this was because the necessary‘cleaning-up’ of the political field had already been carried out in 2005 andthe start of 2006. During the electoral campaign at the end of 2005 a total offive out of seventy-five applications submitted to register party lists wereturned down at the registration stage (i.e. 6.7 per cent). There were no refusalsin five out of the nine regions. Of the five refusals, two involved theRussian Party of Pensioners, and there was one each for the RPL, theAgrarian Party of Russia and Patriots of Russia. Three refusals resulted fromchecks on signature lists, and one each for breaking the rules when payingelectoral deposits and holding pre-election conferences. After registrationdecisions were taken based both on appeals from participants and on informationsupplied by the Federal Registration Service (FRS) to cancel theregistration of three of the seventy lists registered (4.2 per cent). Thus, if oneincludes those that were refused registration, the total of lists excluded waseight out of seventy-five that had submitted registration documents (10.7 percent). In three regions (Astrakhan, Lipetsk and Novgorod Oblasts) no listswere excluded and no registrations were cancelled.In particular the cancelled registrations included:In the Republic of Tyva: the list of the Russian Party of Life (on thegrounds that, as one candidate had left the list, the number of candidatesin the list had fallen below the minimum of sixteen laid down in theelectoral law of the Legislative Chamber of the Great Khural).In the Republic of Kareliya: the RDP Yabloko list (on the basis of informationfrom the FRS about an illegitimate conference of the party’sregional branch).In the Jewish Autonomous Oblast: the list of the Russian Party of Life(on the grounds that more than half the candidates had left the list).The Russian Party of Life clearly dominated in the overall total of refusals toregister or cancelled registrations (one refusal and two cancellations). Thus atendency appeared when, at the end of 2005, most instances of the exclusionof party lists from elections involved the Russian Party of Pensioners, at thebeginning of 2006 it was Rodina, and at the end of 2006, the Russian Partyof Life: it was precisely these three parties that had set up the so-calledUnion of Trust in August 2006 and had declared their intention to create aunited party.As a result of challenges to the cancelled registrations of the three listsmentioned above, the registration of two of them was reinstated (in both