Elections in the LPR – the end of the Ataman regime
Alexey Blyuminov, political commentator, Kyiv-Lugansk
On November 2, the Lugansk People's Republic elects its head and People's Council. As you know, elections in the people's republics were planned to be held since May and their expected date was even announced - September 14. But the war made its own adjustments.
Elections are taking place quite routinely. In essence, they are a kind of referendum on trust in the current leadership of the republic (head Igor Plotnitsky, prime minister Gennady Tsypkalov, chairman of the Supreme Council Alexey Karyakin). The remaining candidates - the head of the federation of trade unions Oleg Akimov, and militia commander Alexander Bednov, and businessman Viktor Penner - only get the opportunity to express themselves and support their ambitions with the votes they receive.
One of the reasons for such a “calm” course of the election campaign by Ukrainian standards is that the upcoming elections are of a purely plebiscitary nature. In simple terms, their internal meaning is not who will be elected head of the LPR (this does not raise much doubt among observers), but how convincing the turnout and percentage of support for the winner will be.
The elections are not accompanied by any special scandals, loud accusations of candidates and attempts on their lives, as, unfortunately, is the case in the neighboring DPR. Although there was still a mini-scandal on election grounds in the LPR, it was connected with the refusal to register one of the candidates - the commander of the 4th battalion of the LPR militia, Alexander Bednov. However, the conflict was quickly resolved and Bednov was registered.
At the same time, elections also solve an external problem – legitimation. Now Ukrainian President Poroshenko cannot conduct an official dialogue directly with the heads of the DPR and LPR. After they receive the status of elected leaders, the dialogue begun in Minsk will continue, but directly, without intermediaries like Kuchma. No one will doubt that Plotnitsky represents a certain territory and people. And it is with him that the conversation will take place about the principles of further coexistence.
As for the elections to the People's Council of the LPR, there are differences from Donetsk. There elections are party-bloc. There is the Communist Party, the Donetsk Republic party, the Novorossiya party, etc.
There are no parties in the LPR now. Eight public organizations, which are essentially informal coalitions of various business, trade union, veteran, youth and other organizations representing the interests of active segments of the population of the republic, were allowed to participate in the elections.
In particular, the organization, at the top of the list of which are the current leaders of the LPR, bears the non-ideological name “Peace for the Lugansk Region” and focuses on pragmatic things. Such as establishing a peaceful life, restoring war-damaged infrastructure, launching production, creating jobs, paying pensions, salaries, transition to Russian standards in education, etc.
To provide feedback to voters, meetings between the organization’s activists and local residents are held, there is a public reception for the Head of the LPR and a “hotline” that accepts complaints and appeals from residents of the republic. There, calls are processed and requests are transferred to the relevant utility or administrative services.
Mobile public reception centers of the LPR operate in cities and towns of the LPR.
“Peace for Luhansk Region” is not the only contender for seats in the People’s Council. The association “Lugansk Economic Union” competes with it. The Union’s list includes representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, representatives of budget-forming enterprises of the LPR, economists and industrialists.
The list is headed by republican trade union leader Oleg Akimov. Besides him, the top five includes a farmer from the Troitsky district, Yuri Morozov, the head of the security service of the Antratsitovsky ore-repairing plant, Yuri Pakholyuk, and a large production worker, Chairman of the Board of PJSC Luhanskniva, Zinaida Naden, whose bakeries provided Lugansk with bread during the most difficult months of the war.
The Lugansk Economic Union calls its tasks the speedy restoration of the economic potential of the LPR, the opening of a republican bank, and the start of the work of customs and tax services.
The Lugansk elections are no stranger to purely PR steps that have a purely symbolic meaning. In this light, it is worth considering the transition to Moscow time announced for October 26, as well as the involvement of volunteers in the widespread replacement of Ukrainian symbols with LPR symbols at government institutions.
Finally, if we talk about the tasks of the race favorite, Igor Plotnitsky, then during the elections it is important for him to “establish himself” as the undisputed head of the republic and put an end to such a scourge of the LPR as the Makhnovshchina. It is no secret that until recently, outside Lugansk proper, field commanders had much more weight than the government of the Republic, and it was they who actually acted as representatives of the LPR and on its behalf, formally subordinate to the government in Lugansk.
The latest meeting of militia commanders dotted the i’s. It was announced that the LPR Army, the Cossacks of the Cossack National Guard of Nikolai Kozitsyn and the Prizrak brigade of Alexei Mozgovoy had united into a single fist. Judging by the fact that Plotnitsky and two key field commanders, Mozgovoy and Kozitsyn, shook hands, the problem of the ataman system as a whole has been removed from the agenda.
On election day, according to the chairman of the Central Election Commission of the LPR, Segei Kozyakov, 90 stationary and 5 mobile polling stations will operate. Sites will open at 8 a.m. and remain open until 20.00 p.m. It is envisaged that in addition to the usual form of voting at polling stations on election day, such forms of expression of will will be used as voting on the Internet and by mail, but they will be exclusively in the form of a sociological survey and will not be legally taken into account.
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