| The date for the elections of the St. Petersburg parliament has been set The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (LA) yesterday supported the decision of the Central Election Commission on the date of elections to the city parliament. A law was adopted in the third reading, according to which voting is scheduled for December 2002. Thus, the election campaign actually starts in the city and at the same time an acute political crisis flares up. The fact is that the decision of the Legislative Assembly contradicts the verdict of the city’s Charter Court, the position of the presidential representative office in the North-Western District, as well as the opinion of the Union of Right Forces and United Russia.
The bargaining between deputies and Smolny about when to hold elections, which lasted about a year, has ended. The largest profits were received by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Sergei Tarasov, who bet specifically on December 2002.
Governor Vladimir Yakovlev’s team initially lobbied for the election to be scheduled for April 2002. The deputies elected in December 1998 wanted to be re-elected only in the spring of 2003, and some even in 2004. The governor wanted to quickly get rid of the obstinate people’s representatives who opposed most of Smolny's initiatives. And the deputies, naturally, wanted to engage in lawmaking for as long as possible. Mr. Yakovlev, protesting against calling elections for the spring of 2003, motivated this by the fact that it was inappropriate to overshadow the celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.
In 2000, Smolny did everything to ensure that Sergei Tarasov was elected speaker. He was entrusted with the task of supporting many legislative initiatives pleasing to the governor’s entourage. And most importantly, the speaker had to help the city administration shorten the political life of the deputies of the current convocation. However, this winter, Mr. Tarasov played his game, declaring that the elections should take place at the end of 2002. And it immediately became clear that the Legislative Assembly would not schedule the vote for April 2002.
After yesterday’s decision by the deputies, Smolny had to come to terms with the fact that the elections will be held according to the scenario of the speaker, who, after his victory, will try to make the most of his increased political weight. Some even believe that Mr. Tarasov will stand as a candidate in the future gubernatorial elections of St. Petersburg in 2004. As a consolation prize for Mr. Yakovlev, Mr. Tarasov recently proposed removing from the city charter a provision limiting the number of terms a governor can serve in office.
This fact also speaks about the influence of the speaker. Over the course of several months in late 2001 and early 2002, Mr. Tarasov repeatedly invited deputies to vote for the election date he proposed. However, parliamentarians stubbornly did not want to reduce their powers by four months, citing the fact that the city’s Charter Court ruled back in 2001 that elections could not take place before April 2003. But six months passed and the speaker persuaded the deputies to accept the law he had developed .
The speaker was not embarrassed that he had now acquired very influential opponents in the person of the Union of Right Forces and United Russia, who did not take part in the voting. These factions believe that before setting a date, it is necessary to pass a law on elections to the Legislative Assembly based on party lists. Mr. Tarasov is confident that the presidential structures were engaged in subversive activities towards him. “To my regret, the presidential office in the Northwestern Federal District made every effort to convince deputies not to participate in the vote,” he told reporters.
Nevertheless, we should expect that supporters of postponing the elections will appeal yesterday’s decision of the Legislative Assembly in court, appealing to the decision of the Charter Court. The speaker's supporters have their own arguments, because the Central Election Commission, which examined the conflict with the elections of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly in 2001, decided that the vote should take place in December 2002. Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg |
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