The false start mystery: where will the signatures collected by the United Russia party representatives on the streets go?

Victoria Pavlova

Yevgeny Popov, the TV presenter of "Russia-1", who is running for the State Duma from the 197th Kuntsevsky District of Moscow, was cloned in the Western District of Moscow. People who say "Yevgeny Popov" literally attack passers-by.

“You don’t want to sign for improving the work of polyclinics? And for free healthcare? Put your signatures, now your future is being decided!".

“Collecting signatures for landscaping the area, do you want to join?”.

“Would you like to put a signature for the expansion of free parking lots? Are you in general for free parking or what? "

With such questions, people dressed in clothes with the inscription "Yevgeny Popov is always with you" persistently pester passers-by. Most are fleeing from the clones of the TV presenter, aiming to become a deputy. But some leave signatures, phone numbers, and addresses...

A similar situation occurs in other constituencies, where candidates from United Russia or those supported by the ruling party run for elections to the State Duma. Here are eyewitness accounts from social media.

Mikhail Yurich: “There are legions and legions of them. We have the same people walking around Solntsevo - they are campaigning for Sablin. Somehow they even came home: "We are from the council..." Word for word - it turned out that from Sablin's headquarters. I ask: why are you ashamed to introduce yourself that you are from a candidate from United Russia?.. Eyes are dull, they are silent...".

Laughter with laughter, but how exactly the representatives of the ruling party are going to use the personal data of people remains a question. And is all this legal in terms of the rules of the election campaign? Novye Izvestia appealed to the election headquarters of Yevgeny Popov with a request to provide this information, but the candidate for deputy, who on the posters assures that he is "always with you, always in touch", within 7 working days allotted by the Law on the Press to the response of the media, did not appear. The phone number listed on the website of Mr. Popov's election headquarters is “out of service”.

On the same site, registration for volunteers at the election headquarters of Mr. Popov was opened. So what? I registered, especially since all my life, unlike Yevgeny Georgievich, I have been living in Kuntsevo. I immediately received a questionnaire, in which representatives of the United Russia candidate were interested in my age, hobbies, availability of personal transport and asked how I could help. True, who exactly to help - Mr. Popov personally, "United Russia", the Central Election Commission, the mayor's office, was not indicated.

The nomination of TV presenter Yevgeny Popov is generally shrouded in secrets. The TV presenter prefers not to advertise his connection with EP. For example, here is one of his statements: “I am non-partisan, but nevertheless, United Russia is the largest party, they have the largest organizational structure, the largest regional network. I have no contradictions with the declarations that are spelled out in the charter of United Russia. The concepts of the country's unity, human well-being, and the sovereignty of our country are close to me. I will not join the party. Nevertheless, I am grateful to United Russia for the opportunity to participate in the voting".

Nomination of media persons - the "United Russia" trend. This year there will be even more of them. Former soloist of the Tatu group Yulia Volkova will run for the Ivanovo region. Singer and composer Denis Maidanov claims the deputy mandate. He intends to run for the State Duma in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region instead of TV presenter Oksana Pushkina, who does not go to the Duma. Other former TV presenters do not plan to leave parliament: in Moscow, the deputy speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy will be elected, in the Voronezh region - the deputy secretary of the General Council of United Russia Yevgeny Revenko, known for his work for Russia-1. In addition to the host of the program "60 minutes" Yevgeny Popov, the host of programs about animals and travel Timofey Bazhenov (Babushkinsky district) will also run. The question is, why do media people resort to the help of volunteers working to increase the number of their supporters? Why are these seemingly famous people looking for additional support?

No, the volunteers of the candidates from the United Russia campaigning for good deeds, but still some unpleasant aftertaste. People put their signatures for landscaping, free education, improving the work of clinics, against infill development ... But where these signatures actually go, except as an asset to candidates from United Russia, it is not clear. And is it legitimate? We sent a request to the Central Election Commission of Russia. At the time of publication, the editorial board had not received a reply; the CEC assured us that they were "studying the issue." If the answer is still received, we will certainly publish it.

Meanwhile, the topic of aggressive campaigning by "United Russia", as well as the collection of signatures from citizens with incomprehensible purposes has already interested political scientists and lawyers.

“As a rule, it is necessary to form a database of supporters. In the future, this is used in the course of the election campaign. It should be borne in mind that when collecting such signatures and personal data, the consent of citizens is required. It is noteworthy that not everyone uses such methods of "processing" voters. If a candidate is bright, popular, if he is doing a useful job, he does not need agitators. Behind such trivial appeals and collecting signatures, as a rule, those who themselves cannot offer anything new and original are hiding”, - political analyst Alexander Kynev told Novye Izvestia.

“Such a method of collecting signatures is actually misleading voters or, in any case, an abuse of people's trust. The dismissive attitude towards voters is indicative: candidates and their party proceed from the principle that people can be manipulated in any way. It is also regrettable that from the point of view of political technologies, the United Russia does not offer anything new. It is much easier to call for signatures under general “protest” slogans such as “against infill development”, “against cutting down trees”, “against the commercialization of medicine”, than proposing something specific in this direction. And what's the wrong side of it all? Indeed, with the tacit consent of United Russia, of which the Mayor of Moscow is a member of the Bureau of the Supreme Council , infiltration, tree cutting, and the imposition of paid services in education and medicine are taking place in the capital. The question is also how exactly these signatures will be used”, - political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin comments.

On this score, lawyers build different versions - from the use of collected "street" signatures "by" United Russia "in the ballots to the formation of lists of" absentee "supporters of the party in power. “There is a suspicion that these signatures, collected by volunteers on the street, can be used in ballots if the turnout is low or if the result is undesirable for a particular candidate from the ruling party. Signatures are now generally "worth their weight in gold." In our HOA, for example, they broke into the premises in which the signatures of the members of the partnership were kept. Where the sheets with hundreds of signatures disappeared from there is a mystery. Nobody could find them. I also remember that during the last elections, when I worked as chairman of the HOA, they called me from the Council and demanded to raise the turnout in any way - it did not exceed 12 percent by the end of the day. The officials went so far as to use blackmail. It is possible that in the current elections with a predicted low turnout, signatures collected on the streets will also be somehow used to raise the voter turnout”, - lawyer Lina Rykhtikova told Novye Izvestia.