The municipal elections are over. All votes are counted, quite a few violations registered. The distribution of votes is not surprising in itself. Basically, they mean the continuation of status quo.
What might be more surprising is that the rate of participation was so low. Less than 50% actually and such a figure is lower than in 1993 or in 1996. What might be even more surprising is, that as a matter of the fact among the so-called 'aliens' there were only 43% of them to go out and vote. So. The people who didn't have right to take part of the parliamentary elections held in march this year. They were even less eager than the 'citizens' in exercising their right to define the face of the local governments: town &'volost' councils ('duma's).
Well, there are reasons for this. First of all, the 'aliens' didn't have right to raise candidates. and they themselves were not elligible to be voted for. But nearly two-fifths of russian-speaking community _are_ actually citizens. so what might be wrong with them to be voted for or be raised as candidates?
It's about the class composition of the population. remember, anyone who himself or any of his parents or any of his grantparents lived under jurisdiction of bourgeois regime in the last day of its existence is citizen. Well, this includes the remnants of white guards and emigrants fleeing from "bolshevist horrors". and this includes the remnants of czarist-era elite -- officials & men of business;) as well.
This specific layer actually profited from political changes going on during last 10-12 years. especially it profited from a thing called 'restitution of property relations'. It means that almost every house and piece of land was given back to the ones who owned them in 1940. before nationalization.
That is sounds crazy, but it's true. And as in most of the cases the owners were not alive, land etc. Was handed over to their predecessors, their relatives or just someone who had close enough ties with the previous owners. By this move it was meant to reunite the local bourgeoisie.
This layer of the russian speaking community has rather strong backing of maffia. they're somewhat combined and there seems to exist remarkable fusion between the two. From this layer have appeared the most vocal advocates of the russian speaking community.
But let us get back to the results of elections. it is true that there were relatively few remarkable changes. But it must also underlined that ruling right-wing coalition actually managed to increase it's representation in major municipalities. and the total rate of participation was down at 49% from 67% in 1996.
They managed to get the majority in parliament, although weak, but good enough to use the vote machinery. They managed to do it with only 45% of total >18y population attended. and they nearly crashed in 1995 when the same figure was 55%. What else can we conclude that their supporters go out and reclaim their interest anyway?
There are no surveys made, indicating if & how personal income correlates with the general attendance to the elections, whether parliamentary or local ones.
But there are surveys made about what is the economic background of supporters of different parties. These surveys indicate that supporters of right-wing parties generally better of than the supporters of so-called centrist parties (what a surprise;). And of course there are no left-wing political parties in this land where the annual IMF memorandum is more important document than the constitution (and much more detailed).
What does this reveal in general is that the economic oppression operates as suppressor of any articulate opposition in this country. those who profit are vocal, those who don't are mute.
By the way, the opportunist pro-blairite labour party referred as 'communists' by mainstream media;)) managed to get one representative in town#2 and town#3 councils. So that they're present. But they have long way to go to, for instance, the level of PDS in germany. But there allegedly won't be any elections in the next 3 years.
M.