Open a campaign: the selection of candidates for the State Duma elections has started in the EP

The participants of the SVR will be prominently represented among the candidates from United Russia in the State Duma elections, Vladimir Yakushev, Secretary of the General Council of the EP, told Izvestia. They will be determined based on the results of the preliminary vote, which will be held at the end of May. The organizing committee of the EP will be responsible for the preparation of the primaries — its first meeting was held on March 3. The participants of the SVO who will run will receive an additional 25% of the number of votes they will receive during the week of preliminary voting. See the Izvestia article about how the election campaign started and how Russians can participate in it.

The selection of candidates for the State Duma elections has begun in the EP

On March 3, the Central Executive Committee of United Russia hosted the first event of this year's electoral cycle. The organizing committee held its meeting, which will prepare the preliminary voting (PG) — it will be held at the end of May. According to its results, the Russians will determine those who will be nominated from the party for elections to the State Duma in September 2026.

— Our party officially begins the selection of candidates who will represent it in the elections to the State Duma of the IX convocation. Preliminary voting is a unique party procedure in Russia. Candidates get the opportunity to start a direct dialogue with people before the official start of the campaign," said Vladimir Yakushev, Secretary of the General Council of the EP.

A similar organizing committee was formed before the State Duma elections in 2021. As then, this time it was headed by Senator, Hero of Russia Alexander Karelin. The task of the organizing committee is to organize monitoring of the procedure, campaigning, and the choice of campaign methods that candidates will follow, he said at the beginning of the meeting. The EP's press service said that the committee included representatives of science and the public, veterans of the military.

The nomination of candidates for the PG will begin on March 11 and end on April 30. When registering to participate in the primaries, each of them must decide whether he wants to be elected in a single—mandate constituency or on a list. The combination will not be allowed, explained a member of the General Council of the EP, Senator Sergey Perminov.

By May 15, each candidate must publish two videos and tell first about himself, and then about the program with which he is nominated for the PG. At the same time, it is allowed to start campaigning during the nomination. Finally, the preliminary voting itself will be held from May 25 to 31. Last time in 2021, almost 12 million Russians participated in it, more than 6 million of them online, through the Gosuslugi portal.

The members of the organizing committee will monitor the preparation procedure and the voting process. The committee has serious tasks assigned to it, since in addition to monitoring the selection of candidates for the State Duma, they must control the nomination of deputies to the legislative assemblies of the regions, Alexander Asafov, a political scientist and first deputy chairman of the commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on public expertise of draft laws, explained to Izvestia.

Will the veterans of the SVO be nominated for the PG

The main feature of this year's election campaign is the active involvement of its veterans in politics. This was the task set by the Russian leadership: last year, Vladimir Putin declared that they should become the country's political elite and replace the current generation. In this regard, the Russian parties seriously expect that some of the veterans of the special operation will be able to enter the State Duma following the results of the electoral campaign. United Russia was no exception.

— United Russia expects, given the growing trend in recent years, that ITS veterans will be prominently represented in the corps of candidates for the 2026 elections, including in the campaign for the State Duma elections. The share of such participants will be determined by our voters during the preliminary voting, which will take place soon," Vladimir Yakushev, Secretary of the General Council of the EP, told Izvestia.

According to him, there is a high probability that graduates of the Time of Heroes program will be among the candidates.

— As well as those guys who will be trained at the site of party educational projects, the Higher Party School, — he specified.

They will be accompanied by prominent party mentors throughout the campaign.

The EP has special preferences for its members who wish to run for election. In the primaries at the end of May, they will receive an additional 25% of the number of votes they will receive during the voting week. Among the selection criteria for the PG, the determining ones will be "the presence of an impeccable biography and a range of merits, backed up by deeds, the desire to serve the country and its people, his fellow countrymen," Vladimir Yakushev emphasized.

As of today, more than a thousand veterans of the SVO have already participated in the multi-level elections from the EP, Alexander Karelin recalled. Obviously, thanks to the elections to the State Duma, their number will increase.

— It seems to me that there will be a lot of participants in the special military operation, both among candidates and among deputies in the future. The elections give them the opportunity to try their hand, to participate, to assess how ready they are for politics," said Alexander Asafov.

Earlier, the Civil Society Development Fund predicted that ITS veterans would be able to take up to 40% of seats in the ninth convocation of the State Duma, with the majority of them being nominated by United Russia.