Source How will the results of the municipal elections affect the position of the head of the Kurgan region. Municipal elections in three districts of the Kurgan region next year may shake the position of the governor Vadim Shumkov. Experts believe that the results of the vote will help determine whether Shumkov himself will be re-elected in 2024. He manages to solve the problems of the region with a stretch, and he is not entirely convincing in the position of governor. The reason for his low ratings may lie in excessively high promises that Vadim Shumkov is unable to fulfill.
Take the last
Next year, in the Kurgan region, deputies of the dumas of the Vargashinsky, Kataisky and Dalmatovsky districts will be elected. The elections will take place against the backdrop of ongoing municipal reform in the region. On the basis of regional centers, it is planned to create municipal districts with single authorities. Approximately 300 rural administrations and dumas are supposed to be abolished.
Each united municipal district will include from 45 to 50 villages, which will be represented by 15–20 deputies. This means that it will become extremely difficult for residents to meet with their chosen ones to solve problems on the spot.
Last year, the administrative reform of municipalities did not pass in three districts of the Kurgan region – Ketovsky, Polovinsky and Pritobolny (according to the law, a district cannot be formed if at least two district village councils oppose). In the latter, Prytobolny, five village councils opposed the merger of village councils into a district, and two in Ketovsky and Polovinsky.
As Yakov Sidorov, deputy of the Kurgan City Duma, stated, at public hearings people most often state that they were once deceived with state and collective farms, and the promised farmer's paradise, for some reason, did not come: “They believe that they were deceived with the pension reform, they optimized medicine. There are no hospitals or schools. And this reform also looks like an optimization.” According to the deputy, residents believe that the last thing is being taken away from them.
Yakov Sidorov believes that this situation has also arisen due to the fact that the officials themselves cannot clearly and easily explain why the reform is needed. At first they said it was necessary to simplify financing. Because it is easier for a large municipal association to participate in competitions and receive subsidies for the implementation of programs. But few people are convinced by these arguments. Municipal reform was inherited by Vadim Shumkov from the former governor Alexei Kokorin. And he took up its promotion very actively.
According to telegram channels, the pre-election situation in the Kurgan region is heating up. Local elites are strongly interested in lobbying their people in the authorities. A hidden conflict flares up. The governor, feeling unsettled ahead of the 2024 elections, is hard at work eliminating local governments. In many districts, officials made scandals over cuts, and Shumkov covered himself with budget savings.
Experts predict that there will be no big campaigns in the region, but small-town scandals may also rumble, which in the end can shake Vadim's position Shumkova.
A pleasant official
Shumkov was elected head of the region in the September 2019 elections. His term of office expires in 2024. He was born in the Kurgan region in the village of Shastovo. Vadim Shumkov is a lawyer by training, since the mid-1990s he worked in business in Yugra, was an external manager of several large enterprises (Nefteyugansk river port, Yuzhno-Balyksky gas processing plant and others). In 2004, while still under the governorship of Sergei Sobyanin, he entered the administration of the Tyumen region. The first notable position was Deputy Director of the Department of Strategic Development.
Some time he lived and studied in Germany.
Vadim Shumkov for a whole year (from autumn 2010 to autumn 2011) personally blogged on the then popular LiveJournal platform. During this time, he wrote more than 300 posts, received almost 6,000 reviews, and wrote more than 2,500 comments himself. Those who knew Shumkov during the years of his work as director of the investment policy department called him almost the most open and pleasant official in the Tyumen region.
Problem region
After the election, Vadim Shumkov seems to have decided to oppose himself to the previous leadership. He stated that he intends to focus on the issues that caused the most irritation among local residents. These are corruption, low incomes of the population, worn-out infrastructure, lack of medical personnel. The new governor, for example, not only agreed with the energy companies to reduce tariffs, but also involved them in the reconstruction of street lighting networks and a number of other social projects.
On his initiative, in 2018, a special “Contact” service was created, where it was possible not only to leave a request for a solution to the problem, but also to assess the quality of work performed. Naturally, these innovations resonated with local residents.
Obviously, with the arrival of Shumkov, Kurgan had a chance to develop a new development model that could change the situation in the region. But experts remind that the Kurgan region has been considered a chronically problematic region since Soviet times. And none of the previous governors managed to fundamentally change the situation. And the latter – Oleg Bogomolov and Alexei Kokorin – were forced to leave their positions ahead of schedule.
Three years later it turned out that it was difficult for Shumkov to cope with the problems. The Kurgan region took 73rd place out of 85 possible in the final ranking of regions in terms of population income this year.
There is still a shortage of medical workers in the region. The media reported that
more than 150 doctors are required to the Kurgan emergency hospital. At the same time, the December list of vacancies for emergency hospitals included a salary of 18,000 rubles for nurses, 20,000 rubles for paramedics, and 50,000 rubles for doctors. -gynecologists, infectious disease specialists, cardiologists, neurosurgeons, otolaryngologists, phthisiatricians, pulmonologists…
People prefer to leave the region. The population of the Kurgan region in January 2022 decreased by 416 people due to migration. The outflow was almost twice as high as in the same period in 2021.
The only course
It is worth recalling that in 2019 the Kurgan region entered the top 10 regions with the highest protest activity. Most likely, the governor is well aware of this. In any case, he reacts to the protests very painfully. This year, parents of diabetic children held several pickets. The reason was the refusal of the regional authorities, represented by the Department of Health, to provide them with systems for continuous monitoring of glycemia.
The governor, however, told his press service that the actions were organized by certain people affiliated with insulin companies. True, he did not specify who specifically offered the money and did not name these companies. Later, he nevertheless explained the officials' actions by the impossibility of allocating unplanned funds in the middle of the year.
In general, Shumkov is not entirely convincing as a governor. So in the national ranking of governors, he ranks last among the heads of regions of the Ural Federal District.
The results of the municipal elections, of course, may affect the position of Vadim Shumkov. But the main question here is whether he himself will go for a second term. Experts suggest that this could happen if the situation in the country worsens.
According to political scientist Alexander Bezdelov, Shumkov is doomed to stay in the region: “There are big doubts that he can be transferred somewhere. The Kurgan region is a difficult region. His only course is the election campaign in 2024 [gubernatorial elections].”
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