"Smart Voting" yields notable results only in one region of Southern Russia

Because of the imposed restrictions, the "Smart Voting" strategy failed to find its broad application at elections in regions of Southern Russia; however, the candidates for the Volgograd Regional Duma suggested by the "Smart Voting" won second places in many constituencies; one of them has won, supporters of Alexei Navalny have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on the eve of September 8, the unified Russian voting day, the oppositional leader, Alexei Navalny, and his supporters suggested a system of so-called "Smart Voting". Its mission is to support voters for independent candidates, who can compete with candidates from the ruling party.

Evgeny Kochegin, the acting coordinator of the Alexei Navalny's office in Volgograd, believes that the "Smart Voting" has performed well.

"Out of our candidates recommended in 19 constituencies, 17 were runners-up, and one candidate, Evgeny Shamanaev, has won," Mr Kochegin told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, noting that observers have recorded violations.

Evgeny Kochegin has noted that the "Smart Voting" works well, where there is one round of elections, and a particular candidate should win.

He has also noted that in the case of elections by party lists (as it was in Kabardino-Balkaria or Karachay-Cherkessia), the "Smart Voting" system is not applicable, since the votes are eventually distributed proportionally by the parties.

The "Smart Voting" system has been most efficient in regions outside the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD), for example, in Moscow, Khabarovsk and Irkutsk, Mr Kochegin has noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 11, 2019 at 09:05 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.