While talking on the radio station Ekho Moskvy on Wednesday, Mr. Veshnyakov said that the idea was to avoid "overburdening the voter."
"People are tired of election campaigns," he said. "In some regions, elections are held up to five times a year."
In his opinion, one sign of this elector fatigue is the recent rise in protest votes in regional polls.
He also pointed out that this increase was partly due to the fact that political parties were not recognized in the regions and that there were no vivid individuals or programs.
"Protest votes are lower in the regions where there is no need to hold five votes," Mr. Veshnyakov said.
He added that society did not respect representative bodies much, which went some of the way to explaining higher turnouts for presidential and gubernatorial elections in comparison with those for regional legislatures.
According to him, if the turnout for the presidential election was 65%, then the figure was 10% lower for the Duma election and "even lower" for local elections.
"Everyone understands that the presidential election is a serious election," the CEC chairman said.
Mr. Veshnyakov said that, according to sociological surveys, Russians saw the presidential election as one of the main events in the year and viewed it positively.
He also said that those parties that had "proven their worth in the Duma elections," played an active role in local elections this year.
Mr. Veshnyakov pointed out that United Russia had received less support in local elections than in last year's Duma vote.
He said that the Communist Party's support had increased somewhat, as had Homeland's, while the Union of Right Forces had recorded far better results. In addition, Yabloko and the Party of Pensioners were able to field candidates in a number of regional parliaments.
In Mr. Veshnyakov's opinion, nationwide parties dominate federal and regional elections.
