Leo Serrantes, one of the Union Party’s most senior Council members, has suggested the two leading candidates in the party’s leadership race should face off against each other in a second round of voting. The party has been reacting to preliminary results announced yesterday that failed to provide a clear winner in the race. Mr Serrantes, who previously ran for the party’s presidential nomination last year and who had entered the election as one of the favourites to win, came last of the four runners and for all intents and purposes has now been eliminated from the race.
In a statement released earlier today reacting to the results, Serrantes said that “given that the leadership election has not provided a conclusive winner, I think it is only fair that the two leading candidates should now take part in a final selection vote by the Unionist caucus in Karasicena at the earliest opportunity.” Under his plan both Vlad Marat and Bartek Bagdat who are effectively tied would proceed forward to a further vote of the party’s representatives in both the lower and upper house. Voting by individual caucus members already accounts for 70% of the outcome, with the remaining 30% made up of local members and activists, but with Mr Serrantes and third placed candidate Fyodor Schavelev out of the race this could provide a conclusive result.
Mr Serrantes’ suggestion however is made more complex given that his former rival, Governor Schavelev, won the ballot of party members. Mr Schavelev who had served as Governor of Amar until last year, managed to unite the communitarian wing of the party within the race, but had struggled to capture enough votes within the caucus – particularly as the election focused around the need to challenge Prime Minister Serbin in the lower house in the latter stages of the debate. The former governor is also yet to respond to the results, but close aides have criticised the proportion of the vote allocated to caucus members since he initially declared his intention to stand back in May. It is thought unlikely that at this stage Mr Schavelev would agree to back-down and exit the race given his close win ahead of both Mr Marat and Mr Bagdat.
Commentators now believe that there may be a period of private negotiations between the different campaigns – something which happened when the party’s presidential selection faced difficulties last year. Interim leader Dmitry Kreshnenvo said yesterday that he will ‘take soundings’ from the candidates to develop a way forward. Expanding on that this morning in a news conference he said, “It is of course a shame that the result is not clear, and that the party does not have sufficient rules in place for this kind of eventuality. It will now be a process of discussing what action we can take with the candidates and their campaigns, and I hope to announce the next permanent leader of the party very soon.”
