Political parties and elections of the head of the RF territorial entity in the Baikal region

The article is devoted to the analysis of the political parties’ role in conditions of returning to practice of regional heads’ elections in Russia. The author points out that there are several factors negating the effect of party’s numerical majority. It is low level of confidence to the ruling party in the Baikal region, weak factional discipline in the party, inner conflicts, mismatched operations within a party. As a result, oppositional political parties, which managed to accumulate all their skills and maximally work out during a short election campaign, can win a victory in governor’s elections.