The Communist Party of the Russian Federation refused to participate in the gubernatorial elections in the Primorsky Territory, where the communist candidate had a high chance of winning, but this would have meant a conflict with the Kremlin. The party betrayed its voters, experts say.
As PolitNavigator reported, in the September elections in Primorye, the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Andrei Ishchenko sensationally beat the representative of United Russia Andrei Tarasenko by 8%. However, at the final stage of vote counting, United Russia suddenly began to lead the Communist. A scandal broke out. The Central Election Commission was forced to call a repeat vote. Observers believed that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation still had a chance of winning - “EdRo” decided not to nominate its candidate anymore, but to support the acting head of the region Oleg Kozhemyako. However, in the end, Gennady Zyuganov’s party decided to abandon the fight.
“Well, today the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, in my opinion, signed its final verdict. The communists withdrew from the elections in the Primorsky Territory. And no matter how they explain it, there are no honest explanations for this and cannot be. It’s a shame and a betrayal of the interests of the people,” says political scientist Nikolai Platoshkin.
Political strategist Evgeny Minchenko believes that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was afraid of compromising evidence against its candidate. “What’s wrong with this Ishchenko, what skeletons does he have in his closet?” – the expert argues in his blog.
This version is confirmed by political scientist Alexey Martynov. He believes that Gennady Zyuganov’s party was only ready for a fake fight, not a real one, both in the elections in Primorye and in organizing a referendum against raising the retirement age.
“The Zyuganovites are amazingly cunning and experienced people. It’s one thing to “sell” a spoiler spot to a local mediocre merchant in the summer and hype it up without consequences on the pension topic. And it’s a completely different difference today to get involved in a dangerous fight with the federal heavyweight Kozhemyaka with a clear outcome. Also, the skeletons have all been taken out of the closets, from defrauded shareholders, to the gangster youth of Comrade Ishchenko. There are too many costs for an already tarnished reputation... In general, the Zyuganovites merged,” explains Martynov.
Elections in Primorye will be held on December 16.