Regional offices of political parties of Altai Republic in election campaigns of 2014: extent of the political competition

The main goal of any party, as we know, is receiving or preservation of the government. However, extent of the political competition in Russia remains low. The political competition directly influences the life of society. In this regard, studying of the reasons of low political activity of parties is very urgent. Studying of regional political experience of competitive elections is especially interesting. In 2014 Altai Republic was recognized by the Center of regional researches “Civil Society Development Foundation” as one of the few regions where elections had taken place according to really competitive scenario. The main objective of research is to reveal features of political activity of regional offices of parties and their influence on regional political process. During the research the analysis of data on activity of political parties in the region has been carried out. Electoral laws and key parameters of an electoral system were studied; collecting electoral statistics on several last campaigns of federal and regional level was carried out; activity of the political parties and candidates going on elections and also statistics on promotion of candidates was investigated. For identification of priority activities of parties the content analysis of regional periodicals “The Star of Altai” and “Altaydyn Cholmony” had been carried out. For detailed studying of functioning of party offices in Altai Republic, interviewing of regional experts had been carried out. The federal and regional normative legal acts containing standards of the suffrage, and also the norms regulating activity of political parties: charters, programs, official sites, documents of regional divisions of political parties have drawn up the base of sources for research. The websites of Central Election Commission and election commission of Altai Republic, statistics, the official information which is available on these websites and also periodicals materials had been subjected to the analysis. In general the analysis of political struggle in Altai Republic on elections of 2014 has shown that extent of the competition of regional offices of political parties remains low. Only the office of United Russia really influenced regional political process. Offices of other political parties should draw conclusions and pay attention on: a) search of additional sources of financing means; b) use of various forms and methods of work with electorate not only during an election campaign, but also everyday life; c) need to have the specific and real program of activity in the republic taking into account her original features; d) orientation to groups of the population for the purpose of formation of stable list of voters.

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