Voting began today in Kaluga Region, and it will determine what the opposition’s candidate list should look like in this autumn’s elections.
The main intrigue, it seems to me (though I may be wrong — I got the Novosibirsk results completely wrong), is the contest between human rights activist Tatyana Kotlyar, who has been elected many times before both in the city of Obninsk and in Kaluga Region and is well known to voters, and Andrei Zayakin, a theoretical physicist, one of the founders of “Dissernet” (a Russian networked anti-plagiarism project), a very active ACF volunteer, who burst into Kaluga politics like a whirlwind with a real primary campaign, support from well-known public figures, and so on.
Both candidates are excellent, and among the others there are definitely people worth voting for as well. Out of the nine candidates, I would gladly vote for at least six.
But someone has to come first, and someone has to come second. That is exactly why we are holding these primaries: so that it will be a fair collective decision by volunteers and activists.
The voting will last for two days — today and tomorrow.
Polling locations: Kaluga: 38 Ryleeva Street, Office 301 Obninsk: 18a Kurchatov Street, Office 27, 2nd floor Maloyaroslavets: 24a Gagarin Street, IVK Sayany factory grounds Moscow: 14 bldg. 1 Pyatnitskaya Street, RPR-PARNAS office
Eligible voters are those over 18 with Kaluga registration listed in their passport.
Come and vote. A strong candidate list will not put itself together. This time, Kaluga Region will decide everything — not Muscovites, as usual.