№ 3 - 2006
Medvedev Yu.S.
Nomination of Candidates in Single-Member Districts by Parties at the Elections to Russia’s Regional Legislatures

The subject being researched in the article, with the use of materials of the elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Volgogradskaya, Ryazanskaya, Kurganskaya and Voronezhskaya regions, is the influence of party nomination on the electoral positions disposed of by candidates in single-member districts. On singling out and analyzing the cases of non-coincidence of the percentages of votes received in the districts respectively by parties and by their candidates, the author comes to the conclusion that party nomination is an important, but not the only factor of single-member districts candidates’ success. The research realized by him, demonstrates that the correlation of the resources applied in the course of an election campaign, essentially depends on which party nominates a given candidate: there are parties whose nominees attract attention mainly due to the party label, whereas other parties add little to the images of their candidates, and these have to rely on their own resources. One of such resources is the possession of a deputy mandate. According to the author’s conclusion, the factor of incumbency renders to candidates a notably better chance of success thus making them less dependent on the party support.