Officially, the municipal election campaign at the St. Petersburg headquarters began on February 2 — that day I came to St. Petersburg and held a meeting with local residents.
At the same time, we opened registration on the website for those who wanted to go through the training program at the St. Petersburg headquarters. A total of 4,197 people registered on spb.vote, of whom 1,082 attended the introductory lecture. Altogether, the St. Petersburg headquarters held 133 different training sessions, and about 60 additional informal meetings were held with candidates.
The campaign had 2 lawyers and 3 managers working directly to support candidates.
To help prepare nomination and registration documents, the headquarters held 11 legal lectures attended by 227 people.
A personal account section was created on spb.vote, through which every registered candidate could, with the headquarters' help, prepare a full set of documents for submission to the election commission. Despite tight deadlines — in some districts, the announcement of the election was withheld until the very last moment — the headquarters prepared documents for 262 independent candidates. Signature sheets for collecting voter signatures were prepared for 174 candidates.
The headquarters' lawyers prepared 62 appeals to higher election commissions challenging refusals to register candidates. Later, our lawyers acted as defense representatives in 62 court cases.
In total, 580 candidates supported by the headquarters in St. Petersburg were registered, including:
229 candidates running as independents; 139 candidates nominated by the Party of Growth; 129 candidates nominated by A Just Russia; 70 candidates nominated by Yabloko; 13 candidates from other parties.
By election day, everyone in St. Petersburg was focused on one thing: making sure polling stations were covered by observers.
For this purpose, a bot was created in which all trained observers were registered. Observers used it to report violations on election day. Information could also be submitted via the hotline and through a form on the website. To prepare observers, we held 16 training lectures at the headquarters. In the end, 1,614 people used the observer bot, and we received 3,379 reports of violations at polling stations.
On election day, we had several mobile teams whose members were accredited by the City Election Commission and were therefore allowed to film inside election commissions and be present during the vote count. One of the mobile teams had two of their car's tires slashed and deflated so they would not make it to Kupchino (a district in St. Petersburg).
These elections cannot be called fair: our headquarters released several videos (one, two, three, four) featuring conversations with members of election commissions in which they directly acknowledge the fact that the elections were falsified. Ella Aleksandrovna Pamfilova, apparently, has not reacted to this outrage only because she still has not recovered from the shock.
A total of 1,560 seats were up for election in St. Petersburg (there are 1,580 municipal deputies in all; the 20-seat municipality of Avtovo had been elected earlier). As part of Smart Voting, 1,316 people were endorsed. After the votes were counted, 361 of them became deputies — nearly one-third.
In a number of districts, there was simply no one to endorse, because only United Russia candidates — and more United Russia candidates — were allowed onto the ballot.
Municipalities where Smart Voting won (where it secured a majority or half the seats):
Tsentralny District: 1. Smolninskoye 2. Liteyny 3. Vladimirsky
Vasileostrovsky District: 4. Morskoy 5. Gavan
Nevsky District: 6. Pravoberezhny
Frunzensky District: 7. Municipal District No. 72
Krasnoselsky District: 8. Gorelovo
Kalininsky District: 9. Grazhdanka
Vyborgsky District: 10. Svetlanovskoye 11. Levashovo
Other municipalities where United Russia does not have a formal majority:
Lisiy Nos — 5/10 United Russia. Pargolovo — 5/10 United Russia Shuvalovo-Ozerki — 8/20 United Russia Decembrists' Island — 5/10 United Russia Malaya Okhta — 7 United Russia, 8 Yabloko /20 Pravoberezhny — 9/20 United Russia Nevsky — 10/20 United Russia Ivanovsky — 5/10 United Russia Obukhovsky — 2/10 United Russia, 5 Party of Growth Petro-Slavyanka — 7/10 Communist Party, 1 United Russia, 1 independent, 1 A Just Russia Shushary — 9/20 United Russia Pontonny settlement — 4/10 United Russia Krasnoye Selo — 5/10 United Russia Konstantinovskoye — 4/10 United Russia Uritsk — 5/10 United Russia Yugo-Zapad — 9/20 United Russia Sosnovaya Polyana — 4/10 United Russia, 4/10 Communist Party, 1 A Just Russia Yuzhno-Primorsky — 3/10 United Russia, 3/10 Communist Party, 1 Party of Growth, 3 independents
Even though election day has passed and it might seem that everything is over, by long-standing tradition (which began as early as the nomination stage this year), the struggle continues — only now in the courts. To challenge the voting results, the headquarters' lawyers took part in preparing 21 court filings covering 26 polling stations. The first hearings are expected to take place in the coming days.
Over the next few weeks, additional court filings will also be prepared to challenge the decisions of some municipal election commissions regarding the voting results.
As you can tell from the account above, getting elected as a municipal deputy in St. Petersburg is very difficult. That is why our main task now is to help these deputies become effective and useful. The headquarters is currently preparing educational events for elected deputies and anyone interested, where we will discuss a deputy's political and legislative work, the drafting and review of local budgets and the possibilities for budget oversight, planning work with constituents, and more. It is not enough for people to vote for you — you also have to learn how to carry out their will properly.
Our headquarters has already prepared a guide to the first steps for newly elected deputies, and is also working on the first legislative initiatives that local deputies will be able to introduce at meetings of municipal councils and in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
With the help of the headquarters, the newly elected deputies will build the Beautiful St. Petersburg of the Future.
We are currently looking for a new coordinator in St. Petersburg. You can read all the details and requirements here. Come work with us!