Last Sunday, 29 March, local government elections were held in two regions of Russia. Deputies were elected to two representative bodies of a municipal formation.
Tver Oblast: a reshuffle in Torzhok
In Tver Oblast, elections were held for deputies of the duma of the newly created Torzhok Municipal Okrug.
The election campaign that took place was the final stage of the municipal governance reform in the region. In Torzhok District, it comprised two stages.
In the first stage, in April 2025, all municipal formations on the territory of the district, with the exception of the Torzhok Urban Okrug, were merged into the Torzhok Municipal Okrug. In September, on the single voting day, elections were held for deputies of the first convocation of the duma of the Torzhok Municipal Okrug, where all 15 seats went to candidates from United Russia. The representative body began its brief work.
In the second stage, by a decision of the oblast parliament of 28 November 2025, the newly created municipal okrug and the Torzhok Urban Okrug were merged again into a single municipal okrug. Elections for deputies of the duma of the new Torzhok Municipal Okrug — again, of the first convocation — were scheduled for 29 March 2026.
This time, 23 deputy seats were to be filled. 76 registered candidates contested them: 23 from United Russia, 20 from the LDPR, 20 from the New People party, seven from the Communist Party (CPRF), two from A Just Russia, and four self-nominated candidates.
According to the voting results, all seats were again won by candidates from United Russia.
Yakutia: an election no one talks about
In Yakutia, early elections were held for deputies of the council of the Abyysky Nasleg. From a news item by the republic’s election commission, it is known that the local representative body had previously taken a decision to dissolve itself.
The Abyysky Nasleg has no website of its own, there is no information about the settlements on the municipal district’s website, and not a single decision related to the elections that took place was published on the internet resources of the entire structure of the republic’s election commissions — so the background to their scheduling remains closed to the public.
Here, seven deputy seats were to be filled. Ten registered candidates contested them: seven from United Russia and three self-nominated candidates.
According to the voting results, five seats went to candidates from United Russia and two to self-nominated candidates.
29 March in Russia
86 candidates contested 30 deputy seats in the representative bodies of four municipalities in majoritarian electoral districts.
Total since the start of the new electoral cycle
Since the single voting day on 14 September 2025, 27 electoral campaigns have taken place for the election of heads of municipalities. 76 candidates took part in them.
One election was held for a deputy of a representative body of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Five candidates took part in it, and a candidate from United Russia was elected as deputy.
Elections were held for deputies of 77 local representative bodies, with 403 deputy seats being filled. 900 candidates were registered in majoritarian districts.
