Russian presidential election, 2010

The Russian 2010 presidential election is to be held on May 5th starting at 09:00 (UTC +12) in the Far Eastern Federal Republic (capital: Vladivostok) and ending in the Federal Special Administrative Region of Kaliningrad at 21:00 (UTC +2).

The current president, Dmitry Romanov is eligible to run for his second term during this election. He confirmed he would do so in April 2010.

The elections will be observed by (among others) the The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, observers from the United Russia-party, Our Motherland-party and the Democratic Russia-party, ITAR-TASS, Amnesty International, BADGE-alliance observers and many observers from other nations.

Candidates
Registrations were to be submitted to the Central Elections Commission by the 30th of March. Candidates were allowed to begin campaigning on the 1st of April.

Romanov Campaign
When the Kremlin put in motion its immense propaganda machinery on the 1st of April it was clear from the start that the opposing candidates would have very small chances of winning the elections. Romanov has been attending events all over the European part of Russia daily, some days attending as many as 10 per day. The majority of these events were televised on Telekanal Rossiya, Channel One and NTV (all of which are owned by the government of Russia).

Romanov has also got a TV-appearance time in a ration 10:1 compared to Gennayev.

Romanov campaign has been promoting the successful economic changes under Romanovs first term as well as been criticizing the Communist Party for allowing the dismantling of the USSR causing the extreme poverty in the 1990s. Romanov has been promoting a buildup and modernization of the Armed Forces as well as a renewed social security system.

Budget
Romanov declared a 205,96 billion rouble budget for the nationwide campaign. The sum is however estimated by experts and analysts to be at least twice that sum.

Sponsors include Gazprom and Aeroflot

Gennayev Campaign
Gennayev has been promoting the traditional socialist values in his campaign. A new feature in the campaign, compared to previous communist candidates in Russian presidential elections, is that Gennayev has admitted that the Soviet government failed its policies in the late 1980s and thus caused the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Gennayev has promised, that if he gets elected, he will commence a gradual change in society towards socialism and ultimately recreating the Russian SFSR. He has also promised to increase the freedom of the press in Russia.

Gennayev is estimated to have a support that ranges from 20-30% of the voters.

Budget
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation declared a budget of 800 million roubles for Gennayevs campaign, the largest ever in the history of the Communist Party, this sum however is only 0,38% of Romanovs budget.

Election Results
TBA

Observers

 * the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation
 * the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
 * the United Russia-party
 * the Our Motherland-party
 * the Democratic Russia-party
 * ITAR-TASS (news agency)
 * Amnesty International
 * BADGE-alliance observers
 * Observers from other nations such as;