Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

Electoral reforms and democratization 141However, the representatives of the centre–left alliance being set upannounced the formation of their union at the point when the process ofputting forward party lists was already under way in the provinces. As aresult they often competed against each other. The RPL did not start puttingforward lists in the Chuvash Republic and Astrakhan Oblast, nor didRodina in Kareliya and Lipetsk Oblast. Thus RPL and Rodina lists wereregistered in seven regions. Consequently the RPL and Rodina competedagainst each other in the Novgorod and Sverdlovsk Oblasts, the Republic ofTyva, the Primorskii Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. SverdlovskOblast is particularly noteworthy, as here the leaders of the RPL and Rodinalists, the State Duma deputies Royzman and Zyablitsev, were clear politicalcompetitors.The Russian Party of Pensioners submitted lists in eight out of the nineregions (i.e. in all, apart from the Novgorod Oblast), and they were registered insix. In all these cases the party was competing either against the RPL orRodina. The lists of all three parties of the centre–left alliance competed againsteach other in three regions: the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Primorskii Krai and theJewish Autonomous Oblast.The greatest formal activity was displayed by parties that were representedin the State Duma, and this continued the tendency shown in the earlierregional elections that had taken place in 2004–6. Only three parliamentaryparties, United Russia, the CPRF and the LDPR, put forward and registeredlists in all nine regions.Patriots of Russia is nominally in second place for its activity in submittingparty lists; it submitted and registered lists in eight of the nine regions(including Tyva, where it registered its list following a decision of theSupreme Court).Among the other parties, the most active was the Party for NationalRevival: its lists were registered in six regions. Concerning the liberal rightparties, Yabloko registered three lists: in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Kareliya andthe Primorskii Krai (in Kareliya the registration of the list was cancelled bythe courts). No list was registered for the SPS (they held talks with Yablokoin Kareliya, but the list was never finalized and it was too late to participateindependently in the elections). Against this background of the fall of themost famous democratic parties, one may observe the increase in activity by‘non-traditional’ democrats: the renewed Democratic Party of Russia (withthree lists registered) and the Free Russia Party (two lists registered).The Agrarian Party of Russia was clearly in decline, as it did not have onelist registered. The only region where the party tried to act independentlywas Primorskii Krai, but its list was not registered there. Branches of theparty effectively supported the United Russia lists publicly in the Republic ofTyva, the Chuvash Republic and the Novgorod, Lipetsk and SverdlovskOblasts.Freedom and People Power, the Republican Party of Russia and thePeople’s Party each had one instance of participation in elections. Lists were