Window on Eurasia

Many Russians Say Voting for Incumbents Best Form of Protest

Paul Goble

Vienna, June 29, 2006 – Nearly one in every three Russians says that the most effective way for their countrymen to protest existing conditions is to vote for members of the party in office because its members are responsible for resolving the problems that have given rise to the anger of the voters.

Only one Russian in six – 16 percent – says that the best way to
express disssatisfaction is to vote for members of an opposition party
or for an opposition candidate, the same share as believe that the best
way is to vote “against all” and slightly less than the 19 percent
who said that the best way to protest was not to vote at all.

Those are just some of the findings of a poll of 1600 Russians conducted
earlier this month in 46 regions, krays and republics of the Russian
Federation by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion
(VTsIOM) and published yesterday
[http://www.wciom.ru/], June 28.

The survey was carried out to determine how Russian attitudes toward and
willingness toward the option in elections there to vote against all
candidates. According to VTsIOM, eight percent said they would exercise
that option in hypothetical voting for the Duma, but only half that
many said they would do so in presidential elections.

But 23 percent of the respondents – or nearly one Russian in four –
indicated that at some point during the last 10 to 15 years they had
exercise that option. Eighty-three percent said they had exercised that
option because they were dissatisfied with all the available candidates.

Four out of five of those who had exercised this option, however, said
that they did not feel that it had had any political impact, although
many of them said that they were pleased to be able to express their
distrust in all the available candidates and demonstrate their
dissatisfaction with the situation in which they found themselves.

Perhaps because of the sense that casting a ballot “against all”
has little or no effect, only 16 percent of the total sample would advise
others to chose that option. But somewhat paradoxically, the largest
portion of the sample – 30 percent – indicated that the best way to
protest was to vote for the party or politician in power.

Such a calculation, along with the low percentages of those who believe
that voting for the opposition, not taking part in the election at all,
or casting a vote “against all” provides yet another part of the
explanation for why those Russian officials and parties that gain
office are likely to remain there even after future elections.

According to the poll, 53 percent of those saying they would like to
vote against all parties and candidates are unlikely to participate in
elections. If so, that would slightly boost the percentages likely to
be obtained by United Russia Party and Zhirinovskiy’s Liberal Democrats
but have little impact on the shares backing the opposition.