How Local Elections Were Conducted Between the Single Voting Day of 2023 and 2024

This year, on the so called single voting day in September 8,  4135 elections will be held. Local elections account for 98.5% of the total number of elections.

Due to local government reform, the number of elections that are held on other dayes than single voting days is decreasing each year. Compared to the election cycle2020 and2021, the number of  such elections has almost halved in 2023-2024. In 2024, the number of local elections decreased eightfold, from 230 in the fall of 2023 to 30 in the spring of 2024.

The opportunities for citizens to participate in government and local affairs are decreasing every year, and statistics confirm this trend. One of the stated reasons for the municipal reform is the difficulty of finding candidates for such a large number of elections. While competition for the positions of municipal heads is low but acceptable, with an average of 2.9 candidates per mandate, elections for municipal deputies are even more problematic, with only 1.9 candidates competing for each mandate. As a result, many elections are disrupted simply because only one candidate remains on the ballot.

Despite this there are still occasionally lively campaigns with intense competition on the local level. A change in the electoral system, such as a shift from single-member districts to districts with proportional representation - such a practice exists in some regions  has shown a positive impact on the representativeness of elected local councils, even under the current conditions.

Parties hardly participate in elections: in the elections for municipal heads, almost 40% of candidates are self-nominated. In most elections, only candidates from "United Russia" and the LDPR take part, while other parties nominate candidates only sporadically. In the 80 election campaigns for municipal head positions held over the year since September 2023, only seven campaigns were conducted without the participation of "United Russia." The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) nominated only six candidates in 80 elections, "A Just Russia" nominated 10 candidates, and the parliamentary party "New People" nominated just two candidates.

This can be explained by the fact that the powers of local self-government bodies are steadily decreasing, and the attractiveness of these positions is approaching zero. However, the result of the weak participation of other parliamentary parties, apart from "United Russia," in local-level activities and elections is an insufficient number of municipal heads and deputies from these parties. Consequently, there is a problem for gubernatorial candidates not aligned with the authorities to overcome the "municipal filter".

Read more in our report (in Russian)