vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #533 / Special reports / Reading article...

Twelve political parties and 170 individual candidates will run for 40 deputy seats in Primorye’s Duma at the upcoming elections this October, a press statement from the regional election committee reported Monday.

The candidate registration for the October 8 elections ended on August 23, the statement said.

According to federal legislation, this year the seats in the regional Duma will be shared by both independent deputies not affiliated with political parties, and political parties’ representatives, with 20 seats for each group. Previously, the voters cast ballots for individual deputies only.

Among the political parties running for the seats, are the regional branches of various factions including United Russia, Russia’s Communist Party, Agrarian Party of Russia, Russia’s Patriots, Liberal Democratic Party and Russian Pensioners’ Party.

Presently, the United Russia party is represented by 23 candidates, the largest number of candidates nominated by any party. The faction’s list is headed by Primorye’s Governor Sergei Darkin. The least number of candidates is represented by Russia’s Communist Party which has 11 deputies. Overall, the specific groups running for the election represent 210 different candidates.

Among the deputies rivaling for the regional Duma, 56 candidates are nominated from Vladivostok’s six electoral districts. Those include both political factions’ representatives and self-nominated candidates.

According to the amendments of Primorye’s regulations, this year the newly elected Duma serve for the next five years, unlike previous elections when the deputies were chosen for a four-time term, the statement said.

Another considerable change in voting procedure is the absence of the protest vote option that allowed a voter to abstain against all candidates, which was removed from ballots according to the bill passed by the State Duma in June. The “against all candidates” option has grown increasingly popular as a protest vote in recent years.

As of July 1, 2006, a total of 1,448,263 voters were registered in Primorye, the statement reported.