Factors Of Electoral Violations In The Municipalities Of St. Petersburg In 2014-2019

The institution of elections in Russia comprises a lot of problems. Among them, the most challenging one is the massive electoral fraud, artificially created by an authoritarian state. Violations regularly occur at all the existing elections. Municipal elections, as a phenomenon, represent a large field for the research. In its essence it signifies the first stage of the electoral system where everything begins, in other words, where the process of falsification generally is being initiated. Thereby, this paper will denote the common malpractices in the municipal elections in St. Petersburg for the years of 2014-2019. In order to understand what factors influence the increasing number of violations at the municipal elections, besides the work of political machines, the socio-economic characteristics of municipalities will be analyzed, such as budget, age composition, population density and others.