2022 Mari El head election


The 2022 Mari El Republic head election took place on 11 September 2022, on common election day. Acting Head Yury Zaitsev was elected for a full term.

Background

Chairman of the Moscow Oblast Court of Arbitration Alexander Yevstifeyev was appointed Head of Mari El in April 2017, replacing controversial 4-term incumbent Leonid Markelov. Officially an Independent, Yevstifeyev was nominated by United Russia as its head candidate in the following election, which he won with 88.27%, facing little opposition.
Despite a landslide victory in the head election, during Yevtufeyev's term United Russia ratings in the republic had slipped, as the party won only 37.5% of the vote in 2019 legislative election, while CPRF scored 27%. The ruling party suffered further defeats in the 2021 Russian legislative election: Communist incumbent Sergey Kazankov was reelected in Mari El constituency with 50.36%, and CPRF won by party lists with 36.3% to United Russia's 33.4%.
Aleksander Yevstifeyev allegedly took a leave of absence and asked for his resignation in February 2022 due to his lack of interest leading the region for another 5 years. Given United Russia poor performance in the republic, several candidates from opposition parties were considered for Yevstifeyev's replacement, including State Duma member Sergey Kazankov and State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov. On 10 May Aleksandr Yevtifeyev resigned and President Vladimir Putin appointed Prime Minister of Kalmykia Yury Zaitsev as acting Head of Mari El.
Due to the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent economic sanctions the cancellation and postponement of direct gubernatorial elections was proposed. The measure was even supported by A Just Russia leader Sergey Mironov. Eventually, the postponement never occurred, as on 10 June State Assembly of the Mari El Republic called head election for 11 September 2022.

Candidates

Until 2022 only political parties could nominate candidates for head election in Mari El, however, in May 2022 Mari El State Assembly passed a law, allowing self-nomination in the head elections. Candidate for Head of Mari El should be a Russian citizen and at least 30 years old. Each candidate in order to be registered is required to collect at least 9% of signatures of members and heads of municipalities. Self-nominating candidates in addition should collect signatures of 1% of registered voters, or 5,320 people. Also gubernatorial candidates present 3 candidacies to the Federation Council and election winner later appoints one of the presented candidates.

Registered

Did not file

  • Vasily Arisov, physician ''''

Declined

Candidates for Federation Council

Finances

All sums are in rubles.
Financial ReportSourceArisovGlushchenkoMirbadalevZaitsevZlobina
First10,00020,000217,00025,100,0009,800,000
Final10,000TBD4,420,00050,100,00011,800,000

Results

! style="text-align:left;" colspan=2| Candidate
! style="text-align:left;"| Party
! width="75"|Votes
! width="30"|%