Election to the 7th convocation of the Moscow City Duma took place on the United Voting Day on 8 September 2019. The elections were held under first-past-the-post voting system, which saw 45 deputies being elected in their respective single-member districts amidst the 2019 Moscow protests, which saw huge rallies in support of independent opposition candidates. The term of the new Duma will be five years.
Background and preparations
The Moscow City Election Commission organizes 3,616 polling stations, of which 3,440 are at the places of residence, and 176 are at places of temporary residence (hospitals, sanatoriums, places of temporary detention of suspects and accused, and other places of temporary stay).Федеральный закон от 21.07.2005 N 93-ФЗ (ред. от 01.06.2017) «О внесении изменений в законодательные акты Российской Федерации о выборах и референдумах и иные законодательные акты Российской Федерации». Статья 11
Candidates for registration must collect voter signatures in their support in the amount of 3% of all constituency voters (from 4,500 to 5,500 signatures). However, regardless of whether a candidate has enough valid signatures, a candidate will not be on the ballot if more than 10% of the signatures are considered flawed by the Moscow City Election Commission (MCEC).
Candidates nominated by political parties represented in the State Duma (United Russia, CPRF, LDPR, A Just Russia) could nominate their candidates without collecting signatures. However, United Russia did not formally nominate any persons, instead in an attempt to gain election support from low information voters, the party endorsed several self-nominee (independent) candidates due to United Russia's unpopularity amongst the Moscow electorate. In an attempt to potentially prevent a number of independent candidates (affiliated with the United Russia) to be elected for the Moscow City Duma, opposition politician Alexei Navalny launched the “Smart Voting” project, which urged Russian citizens to strategically vote towards any presumably strongest candidates who were not supporters of the United Russia.
On 26 July 2019, the "Liberal Mission" Foundation published a report entitled “Results of the nomination and registration at the elections of deputies of the Moscow City Duma on 8 September 2019”. According to the authors of the report Alexander Kenev, Arkady Lyubarev and Andrey Maximov, the results of registration of candidates for the MCD indicate electoral commission's inadequacy and injustice, suggesting that there was an unequal approach and even discrimination in the process of registering candidates.
Constituencies
The current constituencies' boundaries were adopted on 30 April 2014. According to independent experts, they contain marks of gerrymandering.
The list of constituencies and candidates. In central, southwestern and northwestern constituencies the independent opposition candidates had strong chances (see also 2013 Moscow mayoral election, districts where Navalny had good results), in most of other constituencies the strongest opponent is a CPRF candidate. However, some strong candidates, even nominated by political parties represented in the State Duma, were excluded from the race. In constituency 43 no pro-United Russia candidates are registered. +No.Votersrequired signaturesUnited Russia candidateStrongest opponentOpponent's affiliationOpponent's status1170,1905,106Andrei TitovIvan UlyanchenkoCommunist party2174,3135,230Svetlana VolovetsGennady Gudkovindependent, Gudkov's team3177,1625,315Sabina TsvetkovaTimur AbushaevCommunist Party4175,4455,264Mariya KiselyovaZoya Shargatovaindependent, green5177,1495,315Roman BabayanDmitry Gudkovindependent, Gudkov's team6173,6475,210Mikhail BalykhinEvgeny Bunimovichindependent, Yabloko7171,0815,133Nadezhda PerfilovaPyotr ZvyagintsevCommunist Party8176,9835,310Ekaterina KopeikinaIvan Zhdanovindependent, Navalny's team9173,1175,194Andrei MedvedevYulia Galyaminaindependent, Yabloko10176,1365,285Larisa KartavtsevaYury DashkovCommunist Party11175,5325,266Yevgeny NifantievAndrei Babushkinindependent, Yabloko12155,9804,680Alexei ShaposhnikovAlexander EfimovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)13166,8625,006Igor BuskinIlya LifantsevA Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)14172,2175,167Natalia PochinokSergei Tsukasovindependent, sup. Communist Partyexcluded ("-" instead of "don't have" in the column "foreign property")15145,1554,355Andrey MetelskySergei SavostyanovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)16145,4744,361Anton MolevMikhail TimonovA Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)17145,6764,371Anastasia TatulovaVictor MaximovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)18145,1474,355Nikolai TabashnikovYelena YanchukCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)19145,3404,361Irina NazarovaOleg SheremetievCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)20147,8324,435Maxim ShingarkinYevgeny StupinCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)21156,7414,703Vera ShevchenkoLeonid Zyuganov Communist Partyregistered (party nomination)22152,7604,583Inna SvyatenkoDmitry SaraevCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)23149,0754,473Yelena NikolaevaYelena GulichevaCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)24176,2565,288Igor DyagilevPavel TarasovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)25148,2764,449Lyudmila StebenkovaAndrei OrelCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)26147,1754,416Kirill ShchitovVladimir KalininA Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)27152,1974,566Stepan OrlovAlexei DrygaCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)28150,3744,512Yelena SamyshinaArkady Pavlinov A Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)29149,5894,488Oleg ArtemyevNikolai SergeevCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)30159,8274,795Margarita RusetskayaRoman Yunemanindependentregistered (signatures accepted)31148,4334,453Sergei ZverevKonstantin Yankauskasindependent, Navalny's teamrejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)32149,1414,475Olga MelnikovaKlim LikhachevCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)33176,2245,287Lyudmila GusevaVladimir Burmistrovindependent, Right Blocrejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)34166,2924,989Alexander SemennikovYulia GladkovaCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)35175,7565,273Natalia MetlinaSergei VasilievA Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)36145,1074,354Olga SharapovaSergei KurganskyCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)37174,0725,223Alexander RomanovichYelena Rusakovaindependent, Yablokorejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)38174,9435,249Alexander KozlovIgor GlekA Just Russiaregistered (party nomination)39155,0014,651Valery GolovchenkoAlexander VidmanovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)40170,3055,110Tatiana BatyshevaIgor SukhanovCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)41162,7354,883Yevgeny GerasimovOlga FrolovaCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)42160,0904,803Kirill NikitinAnastasia Bryukhanovaindependent, Yablokorejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)43149,6854,491Anna Federmesser (withdrew)Lyubov Sobolindependent, Navalny's teamrejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)44159,4964,785Ilya SviridovYelena ShuvalovaCommunist Partyregistered (party nomination)45150,2284,507Valeria KasamaraIlya Yashinindependent, Navalny's teamrejected (more than 10% signatures flawed)
Rejection of opposition candidacies
After the verification of the signatures collected by the candidates, the Moscow City Election Commission (MCEC) refused to register most of independent opposition candidates. The claimed reason was the high percentage of rejected signatures (exceeding permissible reject rate is 10%). Independent candidates accused the MCEC of forgery in verifying signatures aimed at prohibiting the opposition to participate in elections. During the verification some personal data of the signers was entered with errors. In addition, a significant part of the signatures was invalidated on the grounds of a so-called handwriting examination, which scientific validity and impartiality the candidates questioned. The candidates submitted to the MCEC statements confirming the validity of signatures from signatories, whose signatures were rejected on the grounds of handwriting examination. The candidates also submitted to the MCEC an opinion of professional handwriting experts on the insolvency of the MCEC examination. Despite this, the MCEC did not change the decision. In protest, one of the candidates, Lyubov Sobol, went on a hunger strike on July 13.
On the other hand, the MCEC registered 32 candidates from Communists of Russia party, which has very low popularity (during 2016 election to the State Duma it collected 2%). This party is regarded by experts as a spoiler for CPRF. These candidates are almost unknown in Moscow, mostly students, housewives and low-skilled workers. According to the MCEC, these 32 unknown candidates managed to collect the necessary signatures. However, Muscovites did not see any signature collectors for the candidates from Communists of Russia or pro-United Russia 'independent' candidates in the streets of their city. Later, an opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta revealed that the same headquarters coordinates the actions of candidates from Communists of Russia and pro-United Russia 'independents'.
Starting from July 2019, numerous approved and unapproved rallies in Moscow took place. Rallies on Sakharov Avenue on July 20 and August 10, 2019, became the largest political rallies in Russia after the 2011–2013 protests and the rally on 27 July 27 established a record high for the number of detainees. The protests were accompanied by massive administrative arrests of unregistered independent candidates and two criminal cases: the obstructing the work of election commissions case and the riots case (also known as the Moscow case).
Campaign
Pro-United Russia candidates Positive articles about pro-United Russia candidates began to appear in district newspapers six months before the official start of the race, thus allowing to identify them. Pro-United Russia candidates received 800 mln rubles (~12.5 mln USD) from funds affiliated with United Russia for their campaigns. All other candidates had significantly less resources. Pro-United Russia candidates actively used outdoor advertising and promoted in various media.
Shortly before election day, fake "smart vote" (see below) posters with wrong candidate began to appear. For example, posters were actively distributed in constituency 15, stating that "Navalny supports candidate Ostrikov from the Communists of Russia party", while "smart vote" supported the candidate from the CPRF Savostianov. Also, in some constituencies, Communist of Russia party candidates from Russia became more active, though they show no activity during most of the campaign. Their posters and agitation cubes were made as similar as possible to the posters and agitation cubes of candidates from the CPRF.
Non-system opposition Non-system opposition figures divided in their opinion on participation in the elections.
Alexei Navalny offered a "smart vote" tactic, which boils down to voting for the most popular candidate among the parliamentary opposition or the independents, in order to prevent a United Russia domination. They marked with a (*) in the list below. The FBK has issued many anti-corruption investigations in support of the "smart vote".
Mikhail Khodorkovsky made a site with candidates' opinion on detainees during 2019 Moscow protests. His site was heavily criticised due to mentioning Valeria Kasamara among the supporters of the detainees, what was seen as a hypocrisy given her support by the United Russia and Sobyanin.
Dmitry Gudkov made a short list of worthy candidates. They marked with a (¤) below.
Garry Kasparov called to boycott the elections.
FBK Investigations