Penza, 28 June 2016. PenzaNews. Pavel Kulikov, assistant coordinator of the LDPR regional branch, will be taking part in the State Duma election for the Penza single-mandate election district No. 146, while the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in Penza Alexander Vasilyev will be competing for the Lermontov single-mandate election district No. 147, according to the decision of the 29th countrywide LDPR convention held in Moscow on Tuesday, June 28.

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The LDPR chose a list of candidates for all 225 single-mandate State Duma election districts. The earlier reports said that only 224 candidates will be chosen; however, the Liberal Democratic Party Supreme Council chose to expand the list with Dzhafar Dzhafarov, who will be competing in Dagestan.

At the same time, the federal roster headed by the LDPR chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky features 314 candidates, including 10 federal candidates – the party leader himself, Igor Lebedev, Leonid Slutsky, Yaroslav Nilov, Alexei Didenko, Mikhail Degtyarev, Alexander Kurdyumov, Dmitry Svischev, Sergei Karginov, and Vasily Tarasyuk.

The convention decided to divide the Penza region in two regional groups: No. 102 (identical to the Penza single-mandate election district No. 146) and No. 103 (identical to the Lermontov single-mandate election district No. 147).

The regional group No. 102 is headed by Pavel Kulikov, while the LDPR regional branch coordination council member Vadim Matyushin is No. 2.

The first member in the party’s election group No. 103 is Alexander Vasilyev, who is followed by Igor Sarantsev, member of the regional branch’s coordination council, coordinator of the Kamenka town LDPR branch.

As a result, Pavel Kulikov will be pitted against Sergei Yesyakov (United Russia), Georgy Kamnev (CPRF) and Lyudmila Kolomytseva (“A Just Russia”) in the election district No. 146; while Alexander Vasilyev will be competing against Alexei Petrov (CPRF) and Leonid Levin (“A Just Russia”) in the election district No. 147 – as the United Russia did not choose its candidate for the Lermontovo election district.

As PenzaNews reported earlier, the election to the State Duma of the 7th convocation will take place at the unified voting day of September 18, in accordance with the presidential decree signed on June 17.

The election will be conducted in a mixed form: out of the 450 deputies, 225 will be elected through party lists in unified federal districts (under a proportionary system), while 225 more will be elected for single-mandate regions (under a majoritary system).

The political parties that intend to get representation in the State Duma must surpass a 5% threshold, while their candidates in the region must receive a relative majority of the vote.

Previously, the mixed State Duma election system was used in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2003. However, starting from 2007, the voters were asked to vote for party lists only.