Interfax: Russians don’t mind ‘against all’ option on ballots

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 16, 2013) Some 43% of Russian citizens support the initiative to reinstate the “against all” opinion on ballots, the Russian Public Opinion Studies Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Wednesday.

Twenty-one percent of the respondents disagreed with the idea, and 32% said they simply did not care. VTsIOM polled 1,600 people in 130 towns and cities in 42 regions. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

Most of the respondents said they had never selected the “against all” opinion before: 54% did not do so although they had a chance, and 20% never had a chance to use the option.

Fourteen percent said they had voted “against all” before, and 57% of them explained their choice by the mistrust they felt towards the candidates or the absence of a worthy candidate.

The respondents explained the “against all” vote as a protest against the absence of a real choice and their motion of no-confidence against all candidates participating in the election (38%), a way to demonstrate discontent with one’s life (23%), and a way of self-expression for generally discontent people (12%).

Also, respondents preferred elections that are held on non-working days (70%) rather than during the work week (14%). Supporters of the existent system said people had more free time on their days off (45%) and less time on working days (16%), the vote on days off was convenient (9%) and that they were accustomed to votes being held on days off (9%).

People who preferred to cast their ballots on working days said they needed days off to rest (14%) and to deal with personal matters (10%). They also said the election was a chance for an extra free day (10%).

Some 68% did not support the proposal to hold elections on working days, and 18%, mostly supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party (24%), argued the opposite.

Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on September 25 it was possible that the “against all” option on ballots would be reinstated. The Russian Central Commission expressed its preparedness to assess the initiative of Matviyenko.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 channel on September 28 that he had no objections to the initiative. “I have been thinking about it. I have no objections, in principle. Although it may make less sense with a variety of parties than it used to make when the number of parties was much smaller,” the prime minister said.

Matviyenko said in an article published by the Izvestia newspaper that the “against all” option might be restored on the ballot for municipal, regional and State Duma elections but the option would not be available during presidential elections.