Gubernatorial hopes for Yekaterinburg's mayor don't look good, judging by new comments from Russian Central Election Commission chief

Russian Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova says she has “many questions” about political party Yabloko’s nomination of Yekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roizman for the governor’s race in Sverdlovsk.

Pamfilova has reportedly appealed to Yabloko’s leaders, asking them to correct several procedural violations and formally re-nominate Roizman before it’s too late.

• Officials in Sverdlovsk have reportedly complained that Yabloko violated election statutes by nominating Roizman at the party’s federal level, though regulations require this decision to be made by a party’s regional body. Yabloko ran into trouble at this level, when the party’s Sverdlovsk branch chairman, Yuri Pereverzev, resigned his post and left the party in protest against Roizman’s nomination.
• Even if Yabloko is able to get its act together and nominate Roizman to Pamfilova’s satisfaction, the Yekaterinburg mayor faces the difficult task of winning the support of roughly 130 local deputies throughout Sverdlovsk. Regional officials have already reached out to deputies, reportedly encouraging them not to vote for Roizman.
• The first and perhaps only round of the Sverdlovsk region's gubernatorial election will take place on September 10, 2017.