23 September 2003 00:50
Putin protege fails to clinch St Petersburg governor poll
President Vladimir Putin yesterday suffered a political blow after results in
Sunday's St Petersburg governor's race revealed that his support
failed to bring about the election in a single round of his candidate
Valentina Matvienko.
Voting figures published yesterday showed that Ms Matvienko scored a little
under the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright in an election where
less than 30 per cent of the electorate voted.
The figures mean she will be forced into a run-off in two weeks against Anna
Markova, a former deputy governor and ally of Vladimir Yakovlev, the outgoing
governor and longstanding rival of Mr Putin.
The move raised questions about Mr Putin's ability to impose his
preferred choices in the build-up to parliamentary elections in December and
a presidential race next March, even though his personal ratings have been
high.
News of the results came as Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist
party, said he had complained to the federal election commission and the
prosecutor about Mr Putin's endorsement of the United Russia party on
Saturday, in what he claimed was a violation of electoral laws.
Mr Putin had adopted similar tactics in St Petersburg, with federal
television broadcasting extensive pictures of him meeting Ms Matvienko and
wishing her success in the regional race, triggering protests and legal
action by her rivals.
The images were part of an intensive campaign by the Kremlin to put an ally
of Mr Putin in charge of St Petersburg, Russia's second city and his
home town.
However, the moves irritated some St Petersburg residents, who ran a campaign
encouraging people to vote "against everyone".
The category received 11 per cent, the third highest total after Ms
Markova's score of 16 per cent. One local newspaper even dubbed Ms
Matvienko "Alevtina Moskvienko", in a reference to her Moscow
connections.
Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said:
"Given the investment of the Kremlin in the race, this result is a
failure. It shows the great danger of the model of 'managed
democracy'. It doesn't work well.
"Ms Matvienko was running without any other real contenders and it shows
that, like in sport, you need strong competition."
Dmitry Gavra, a political analyst and adviser to Ms Matvienko, played down
the significance of the embarrassment to Mr Putin, saying that her first
round score of 48.7 per cent was very positive.
He said efforts to keep the campaign low-key, and good weather, had kept
voters away.
But he added: "St Petersburg shows you can be elected on your own ideas,
and not those of Moscow."
[FTI [The Financial Times]] |
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