One Russia Did Well In Regional Polls But Must Not Rest On Laurels – Medvedev

Dmitry Medvedev file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, 14 October) Russian Prime Minister and One Russia (United Russia) (ruling party) leader Dmitriy Medvedev has said that, judging by preliminary results, the party did better in the (regional) elections held on Sunday (14 October) than in the election to the Russian State Duma (in December 2011).

“Regarding elections results in the regions where vote count has been all but completed or is close to that, provisional results are already available there, I mean of course our Far East. I shall put it boldly: the One Russia party did well, better than in the State Duma election in December,” Medvedev said at a teleconference at the party’s executive committee.

In particular, he said that, according to the data he had, the result in Maritime Territory in December was about 33 per cent, and in Vladivostok, 23.3 per cent, but “now it is close to 40 per cent”. “The same goes for Sakhalin: it was 41 per cent in the region and 33 per cent in the administrative centre, and now it is close to 50 per cent,” Medvedev said, adding that the data for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy was similar. (Passage omitted: remark on governor elections in Amur Region

(A later Interfax report quoted Medvedev saying: “Everyone expected a fiasco for the party after the election in December, let us be honest before each other, and not because the party did extremely badly then, but everyone was talking of a ‘downward trend’, of ‘everything slipping out of the hands and from under the feet (of One Russia)’,” and adding: “Nothing of the sort happened.”

Medvedev said that this was “the first result in totally different conditions”. He said more parties were taking part in the elections this time, but One Russia’s “result is better”. “Democracy does not scare us, we need it to make our party stronger,” he added.

Another Interfax report quoted Medvedev saying: “The elections went quite well for One Russia but it is too early to relax”. He urged regional leaders to honour the agreements reached with other political parties, saying that “political agreements must be honoured as agreed”.

“After the election we must go back to the promises the party gave. That is roads, safety in the streets, utility charges, clean yards. This is what regional authorities have to do,” Interfax quoted Medvedev saying.

A later Interfax report quoted him saying about One Russia’s wins: “We need all this not in order for the party to revel in its power but so that we can do our job. I therefore now call on all One Russia members, on all those who back our party: I suggest we do not show off or put on airs but toil hard. We should do everything we promised.”)

©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; article also appeared at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-14/russia-votes-in-putin-s-first-election-test-since-kremlin-return.html

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