The first round of the popular vote is over!

The first round of the popular vote is over!

We are announcing the finalists of the online voting of the award "My affectionate and necessary animal"

The Organizing Committee takes a deep breath: the first stage of the Internet voting of the fifth season is over! And before announcing the results, we want to address the candidates who did not qualify for the second round.

You are all great fellows, and many of you (not only in our understanding) are real heroes. Without detracting from the merits of the nominees who continue to claim the title of National Heroes, it is worth recalling that in many ways a number of factors influenced the results of this or that candidate's marathon. Such as the ability to mobilize their supporters at the right time, as well as information support in social networks and the media.

Therefore, in no case should anyone be upset, because the jury of the Award has not yet said its word. Our arbitrators thoughtfully and thoroughly study the history of each candidate, and based on the experience of previous years, it can be stated that quite often nominees who did not receive proper support during online voting became laureates and prize-winners based on the results of the jury's work. The results of the work of the judiciary will be announced at the very beginning of March.

Since the organizing committee received a question why we do not publish the voting figures when announcing each interim weekly result, we answer.

We introduced this rule four years ago, when we first launched voting. Our task is not to create unnecessary excitement, not to turn an absolutely good process into a kind of arena between rivals. Our position is that all the nominees are already winners, and this is not a competition.  Therefore, we simply give the opportunity to cast votes without comparing the nominees among themselves. The arbitrators hold the same position: it is very difficult for them to choose laureates and prize-winners among the worthiest candidates.

Now about the results of the first round.  

To be honest, we did not expect such activity from supporters of the Award and associates of individual candidates. If you carefully study our weekly results, it will become clear: the struggle for the right to go to the second round was extremely correct, but no less heated.

In 17 days, a total of 86812 votes were cast for candidates in two nominations.

The shaggy, fluffy (and feathered) heroes who joined them scored a total of 26,712 likes from the participants of the Internet elections. The Yalta dog Mukhtar was in the lead for almost ten days, but in recent days fans of the dog Varya from Barnaul have joined the cause, providing her with an intermediate first place. Mukhtar's fellow countryman, Sardel's Labrador, first clung to fifth place, after which she entered the top three in a matter of days. The activity of fans of the unique therapist of the Moscow region, Pilyusha the cat, allowed the fluffy candidate to be in the leadership group from the first days.

At the zero hour, for the first time in four seasons, the results of the fifth-place contenders turned out to be equal. The support of fans of the retired police dog Fedor on social networks helped the charming fox terrier to match his fellow countryman, the unemployed cat Sergei. Therefore, the organizing committee quite reasonably decided that both candidates should go to the second round.

The arrangement of places at the end of the first round in the nomination among our lesser brothers is as follows:

  1. The warrior dog from Barnaul Varya — 4980
  2. Fluffy psychotherapist from the Moscow region, the cat Pilyusha — 3515
  3. Crimean rescuer Labrador Sardela — 3430 votes
  4. Yalta symbol of devotion and fidelity dog Mukhtar — 3089
  5. Zelenogradsk unemployed cat Seryozha -2603
  6. Kaliningrad fox terrier detective Fedor — 2603.

It can be noted that the gap between the applicants is not critical, and the intermediate distribution of places may not coincide at all with the final one. There are still 19 days of voting ahead, and objective associates of our project will have the opportunity to choose favorites among a smaller number of candidates. This means that the intensity of support for a number of applicants will increase.

In the nomination for animal rights activists "Responsible for those", where a total of 60100 votes were recorded, as we said, from the first day there was a clear leader who, without slowing down, increased the gap daily. This is Arkady Kramarenko from St. Petersburg with the humane project "Mikhalych's Cats". It should be noted that at the moment the favorite is campaigning insistently and honestly (there are definitely no markups), campaigning daily for subscribers of his channel. Congratulating the resident of Northern Palmyra on the interim victory, however, it is impossible not to ask a question to a group of associates of Arkady Kramarenko. By a strange coincidence, the absolute majority of those who support the Mikhalych Cats project frankly ignore the vote in the nomination among our younger brothers. Is it indifference to animals or is it just that, in their collective opinion, among the nominees of the fifth season in the first nomination, no one has done anything bright and worthy? The Organizing Committee, of course, does not require any report on priorities and attachments, we will consider this question rhetorical.

The second line, with a good margin from other pursuers, is stably retained by Kamchatka Emergency Situations Ministry employee Ivan Berezhnov, who resuscitated a dog in the cold who inhaled poisonous smoke.

The voters actively support Novosibirsk volunteers "Animal_nsk", who gave their shaggy ward the opportunity to move, as well as a friendly team from Tver, which has been saving orphaned cubs for decades.

In the fifth line of the nomination, rotation took place again in two days: the wonderful Kaliningrad volunteer Angelina Strizhenkova was pushed by the search engines of the Novgorod detachment "Courage". The secret of this rearrangement lies on the surface: at the beginning of last week, many media outlets in the Novgorod region called for the support of their fellow pathfinders, who equipped at their own expense the first memorial in our country to a dog nurse. But the press and social networks of the amber region remembered their nominees, including Angelina, unfortunately, too late.

The distribution of places at the end of the first round in the nomination "Responsible for those" is as follows:

  1. Mikhalych's Cats project St. Petersburg — 39717
  2. Rescuer of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Ivan Berezhnov from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky — 4312
  3. Employees of the center for the rescue of orphaned cubs (Tver region) — 2470
  4. Volunteers of "Animal_nsk" (Novosibirsk) — 1978
  5. Search group "Courage" (Novgorod) — 1750

Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that the separation of "Mikhalych's Cats" from the rest of the favorites looks impressive. But if the supporters of the project managed to organize such a handicap in 17 days, then for a similar period of time, with proper organization, they can try to win it back.

The Organizing Committee once again thanks all the like-minded people who took part in the first round for their activity and utmost correctness towards the candidates. We have no doubt that the second round, which starts today at 9.00 a.m. local time, will be no less intense and positive! Recall that according to the rules of popular voting, the candidates who qualified for the final retain their votes scored in the first round.

You can vote once a day in both categories every day!

The final stage of voting will end on February 26 at midnight, after which we will announce the national heroes of the Award. The results of voting for each candidate will also be available on the website.