Russia holds regional polls in shadow of Kremlin critic Navalny's poisoning

Russia on Sunday voted in regional elections overshadowed by the poisoning of the main opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Kremlin critic had been urging supporters to vote tactically to push out the ruling party backing President Vladimir Putin.

Voters went to the polls on Sunday morning, wearing compulsory masks and gloves and undergoing temperature checks to protect against coronavirus infection in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.

Navalny also has dozens of allies running for the city council in Siberia’s Novosibirsk, hoping to tap into frustrations with the ruling party after years of falling wages and a coronavirus lockdown that hit businesses.

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The votes are among an array of local elections being held across Russia’s regions on Sunday.

It is rare for Navalny’s allies to be allowed to compete in elections and the 44-year-old was himself barred from taking part in Russia’s last presidential election in 2018.

The anti-corruption campaigner, who is now being treated in a hospital in Berlin, carved out a following on YouTube publishing videos alleging high-level graft among President Vladimir Putin’s allies and targeting the United Russia party.

In 41 of the country's 85 regions, Russians are voting for regional governors and lawmakers in regional and city legislatures as well as in several by-elections for national MPs.

The vote is seen as a key test of the Kremlin's control of local politics as the United Russia ruling party has seen a drop in popularity amid simmering public anger over falling incomes and economic woes.

Experts say the poisoning of Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition figure, can influence voters. After he was evacuated from Siberia to Berlin, German doctors said Navalny had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

His associates believe the use of the banned chemical weapon shows only the Russian state could be responsible.

Navalny has sought to promote tactical voting, urging his supporters to back whichever is the strongest candidate to defeat the ruling party. He had been in Siberia to promote his "smart voting" campaign when he fell ill.

Berlin has demanded an explanation from Moscow after it said German doctors found the banned Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in Navalny’s body. Russia says there is no solid evidence yet that Navalny was poisoned.

Meanwhile, elections in the country are for the first time being held over three days and some polling stations for early voting were open-air.

Early voting began on Friday and Sunday is the main polling day.

Several regions recorded large turnouts in two days of early voting, with over 50 percent of the electorate casting ballots early in the far eastern Jewish Autonomous Region and in Tatarstan.

The controversial three-day system was first used this summer for a national vote on constitutional amendments that made it possible for Putin to stay in power until 2036.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets there for the past two months over the arrest of a popular governor who defeated an incumbent from the ruling party in 2018.

The case of the former Khabarovsk governor and the protest movement in Russia's neighbour Belarus have both sparked small-scale demonstrations in solidarity in Russian cities, suggesting there is potential for a protest vote.

(with inputs from agencies)