Russia's antiwar Yabloko party kept off ballots in seven of eight regions — but set to enter parliament where it ran
Yabloko's party list was allowed onto a regional election ballot in only one of eight Russian regions, Novgorod, where it is now on track to win seats in the regional legislature with about 6% of the vote. In the other seven regions, the party was either denied registration or removed after lawsuits from rivals.
With 96.86% of precinct results counted, Russia's Central Election Commission data shows the antiwar Yabloko party is on track to win seats in the Novgorod region's regional legislature, its eighth convocation. The party has secured 6.2% of the vote.
United Russia leads the race by a wide margin with 38.37%, followed by the Communist Party at 14.54%, the LDPR at 12.01%, New People at 9.87%, A Just Russia at 7.7%, and the Party of Pensioners at 5.55%.
Yabloko's Novgorod branch said the result reflected strong public resonance with values of peace, freedom, and a life free of fear.
Barred elsewhere
Novgorod was the only one of eight regions where Yabloko's party list actually made it onto a regional parliament ballot. In St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, its lists were never registered. In Karelia and the Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, and Pskov regions, the party was struck from the ballot after lawsuits filed by other parties.
This follows a federal-level setback: on August 10, Russia's Supreme Court removed Yabloko's list from the State Duma elections entirely, ruling in favor of a lawsuit by the Rodina party, which claimed Yabloko's campaign materials violated copyright and that the party had received foreign funding.
Yabloko was the only party in these elections to campaign on an antiwar platform.
