Russia has launched a massive campaign in the occupied territories in anticipation of the so-called "elections." Following these elections, parliaments will be formed to legislate in the respective entities. The new deputies will appoint local leaders for regions and municipalities, while local residents will not have the right to vote for the executive authority.
Elections in the occupied territories will be held exclusively through party lists. This means that residents of the regions will not vote for specific candidates, similar to the first municipal elections in the annexed part of Crimea in 2014.
Election commissions in the annexed territories did not even intend to publish the names of candidates on party lists, citing "security considerations for the candidates." The main goal of these "elections" is to create the illusion of a legitimate electoral process and to justify the occupation. The Kremlin aims to demonstrate the active participation of local populations in these "elections."
To expedite the vote counting process, all territorial and regional "electoral commissions" in the occupied Ukrainian territories will be connected to the Russian "Elections" system. According to information from the "Eastern Human Rights Group" organization, the Kremlin has tasked occupation administrations with ensuring the participation of more than 5 million people in these "elections." This figure is most likely based on data from occupation administrations following last year's fake referendum on "joining the Russian Federation," in which allegedly 4.4 million people participated. However, these numbers are significantly inflated. For example, the occupiers claim that there are over 400,000 residents in the left-bank region of Kherson, currently under Russian occupation, while in reality, there are only half as many.
According to Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, the number of people willing to collaborate with the Russians is not so high. About 700 people in Melitopol and the entire region (the most densely populated region in occupied Southern Ukraine) are willing to collaborate with the Russians. These are mainly teachers, tax and pension fund employees, students, or unemployed individuals with uncertain sources of income.
Russian authorities are trying to create the illusion of political plurality in organizing the electoral process, claiming that 32 parties will participate in the "elections" in the occupied territories. Naturally, the primary role is reserved for "United Russia," while all other parties play decorative roles. In the preliminary candidate lists of the occupiers, many people with questionable "political backgrounds" can be found, as there is little choice of candidates in the occupied regions, especially in Zaporizhia and Kherson, where one-third of the candidates are housewives, retirees, students, or unemployed individuals with uncertain incomes.
Approximately 50% of the inhabitants of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine refuse to participate in the organization and conduct of elections. The low rate of obtaining Russian passports forced the occupiers to take extreme measures: they decided to allow people to vote based on any form of identification, including Ukrainian driver's licenses.
Furthermore, the Russian Central Election Commission has, for the first time, allowed the establishment of "extraterritorial polling stations" on Russian territory for Ukrainians who have settled in Russia, in order to subsequently claim a high local participation rate in these elections. It is evident what kind of result will be "produced" at such polling stations. The Kremlin is doing everything possible to showcase the legitimacy of these "elections," but even now, it can be asserted that these "elections" are nothing but a façade and a total fraud.
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