The main competitors in the city mayoral elections will be United Russia and the Communist

In Omsk, the alignment for the upcoming mayoral elections on June 17 has been determined. Yesterday local communists and Right Russia activists announced their participation in the election race. Only the Omsk branch of United Russia did not officially announce the candidate, setting the date for selecting the candidate for May 5. Experts have no doubt that the winner of the party primaries will be City Council Speaker Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky, and his main opponent in the elections will be Viktor Zharkov, nominated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Nomination for the post of mayor of Omsk will last until May 7.

Yesterday, two parliamentary parties decided on candidates to participate in the early elections for the mayor of Omsk. The Omsk regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated 52-year-old deputy of the regional legislative assembly, president of AvtoKam CJSC Viktor Zharkov. The regional branch of A Just Russia also relied on a deputy of the regional parliament, nominating the 56-year-old head of the Omsk Regional Fund for the Protection of Investor Rights, Irina Overina, as mayor. The elections will take place on June 17. The former head of the city, Viktor Schrader, resigned early last December, becoming a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

16 candidates were notified of their intention to run for office by the city electoral commission, of which 14 are self-nominated candidates. These are Omsk State University student Andrey Rudakov, director of the Apple Orchard Management Company LLC Andrey Bazhenov, Moscow blogger and businessman Ilya Varlamov, spravoross and deputy of the local city council Igor Antropenko, teacher of the Omsk State Polytechnic University Igor Fedorov, manager of the Omsk Regional Fund for Support and Development small business Vyacheslav Fedyunin, director of Anti-Crisis Management LLC Vladimir Vinogradov, speaker of the Omsk city council of United Russia Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky, famous Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, Cossack ataman Andrei Sannikov, leader of the Muslim community Rashid Kunakbaev, director of the management company "Voskhod" Valery Larionov, unemployed Sergei Maslenkov, former vice-governor of the Omsk region Alexander Korotkov and director of Microclimatservice LLC Igor Antropov.

Two self-nominated candidates, Ilya Varlamov and Igor Antropenko, announced yesterday that they were withdrawing their candidacies from the election race. The first failed to collect the required number of signatures in his support, the second “did not find support from the local opposition.” The first registered candidate was Yan Zelinsky, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Omsk regional branch (RO) of the LDPR.

The Omsk RO of United Russia has not yet been officially identified. Yesterday, the party told Kommersant that the decision on the candidacy for the post of mayor of Omsk will be made on May 5. As Kommersant wrote, on April 27, United Russia members summed up the results of the party primaries. The speaker of the local city council, Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky, who had already entered the elections as a self-nominated candidate, won with a result of 50.5%. Yesterday it was impossible to get a comment from him: the speaker’s phone did not answer.

Experts believe that United Russia will ultimately nominate Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky. “I don’t think United Russia has much choice. It is obvious that, besides Dvorakovsky, they have no one to offer. They are delaying his nomination, perhaps because he does not suit everyone. After all, he was never flexible, he always remained unconvinced,” says Omsk political strategist Galina Tatarinova. Ms. Tatarinova calls Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky the main favorite in the election race, however, due to the participation of the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the elections, the speaker will most likely lose some votes. In total, according to expert forecasts, the city election commission will officially register a maximum of five candidates.

The opposition believes that their main rival is the representative of United Russia. “Our main opponent is Dvorakovsky. The struggle will unfold between the party in power and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The rest are designed to draw votes away from us,” says the leader of the Communists in the Legislative Assembly, Andrei Alekhin.

The nomination of candidates for the post of mayor of Omsk will last until May 7, the decision on registration will be made no later than May 16.

Anastasia Mitkovskaya, Omsk

Omsk residents have been given a campaign