Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

292 Cameron RossMunicipal Raion in Saratov, turnout was 72.85 per cent and protest votescomprised just 5.76 per cent. As we noted above, citizens no longer have theright to cast a ‘vote against all’, and minimum turnout thresholds have beenabolished.Party membership of municipal councils and administrationsIn the territory of the Russian Federation in 2004, 1,538 regional and 5,328local branches of political parties were registered. However, parties played arelatively minor role in the 2004-5 round of municipal elections. The mostactive parties were United Russia (UR), the Communist Party of the RussianFederation (CPRF), the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), andMotherland (Rodina). Also taking part to a lesser degree were the regionalbranches of the Russian Party of Pensioners (RPP), the Russian Party of Life(RPL), the Agrarian Party of Russia (APR), Yabloko, and the Union ofRight Forces (SPS). There were also a host of other minor parties, whichfielded less than 1 per cent of the total number of candidates. However, only17 per cent of candidates to local councils and 8.9 per cent of those standingfor posts as heads of local municipalities stood on a party ticket. 28 Moreover,of the 198,815 elected deputies just 18.6 per cent were party members and ofthe 13,655 elected heads of local municipalities, only 20.2 per cent declared aparty affiliation. 29Party competition at the settlement level was particularly low and in somecases almost non-existent. Thus, for example, in elections in KhabarovskKrai for heads of 217 city and rural settlement councils, held on 3 April2005, 7,000 of the 7,006 candidates were independents. Of the tiny number ofcandidates (just six) nominated by a political party, two were from UnitedRussia, two from the CPRF, and two from the LDPR. Moreover, only oneof the six party contestants was successful (from the CPRF). 30The dominance of United RussiaWhere parties did compete, United Russia was by far the most active andsuccessful. In total, as Table 13.3 demonstrates, in the elections to municipalcouncils it won 15.2 per cent of the seats in rural settlements, 17 per cent incity settlements, 15.4 per cent in municipal raions and 17.5 per cent in cityokrugs. In elections for heads of municipalities the percentage of votes forUnited Russia were all slightly higher: 16.7 per cent in rural settlements, 20.1per cent in city settlements, 20.8 per cent in municipal raions, and 21.0 percent in city okrugs. As can be seen the Communists (CPRF) came a verydistant second with figures ranging from 0.6 to 4.24 per cent. All the otherparties had a token representation of less than 1 per cent.In Tver' Region 94 per cent of all party-nominated candidates for localcouncils and executive heads were nominated by United Russia, 31 in Saratov(87 per cent). In Kareliya, United Russia dominated the elections contesting