Parties and candidates at presidential elections - 2018 (on materials of regions of Siberian Federal District)

Abstract

Article is devoted to the analysis of the Russian party system through a prism of the 2018 presidential election. The comparative analysis of presidential elections in various electoral cycles shows changes in the character of candidates and parties’ relations. Till 2004 candidates often did not use party support, then it became the guarantee of the access to elections. In the 2018 election, the incumbent was nominated as an independent candidate - but with the support of the «party of power». The 2018 election are very close to the 2004 one by the dual status of the incumbent, the list of participants, the level of the competition and the electoral results. The analysis of electoral statistics helped to define the general tendencies of the 2018 election: the abrupt rise in the turnout, the low level of the competition demonstrated by the effective number of candidates, the decrease in absolute numbers of voting for all party candidates, except of P. Grudinin. These tendencies are confirmed by voting data in the Siberian Federal District, although some regions (Kemerovo oblast and Tyva) gave abnormal results which can be explained presumably by using administrative resource. Results of the research point out the personalistic character of the political regime and the decrease in the electoral efficiency of party leaders as system problems of the Russian political parties.