Translated material
Can direct elections of the governor in St. Petersburg can be canceled?
In Novosibirsk and the Koltsovo science, direct elections of the mayor are canceled. In Russia, there are fewer fewer regions where there are direct elections.
What's happened. On February 20, the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region supported the bill on the cancellation of direct elections of the mayor of Novosibirsk and Koltsov, reports Taiga.info. Now the mayors will be appointed by the Council of Deputies. The Council is formed by a competitive commission, half of the members of which is appointed by the Governor of the Novosibirsk Region.
The change has not yet entered into force: for this, the City Councils must change the charters of municipalities. And in this case, the new appointment procedure will enter into force after the expiration of the term of office of the current heads of regions - that is, in September 2024.
Local representatives of the Communist Party, “new people”, “Yabloko”, as well as independent politicians and deputies, opposed the cancellation of the elections. Representatives of United Russia and the LDPR, as well as the Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Andrei Travnikov, supported the initiative.
After the abolition of direct elections in Novosibirsk, as well as in October in Tomsk, only seven cities remain in Russia where people can directly elect the head of the region: Moscow, Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Abakan, Anadyr and Ulan-Ude. At the same time, Petersburg and Moscow have the status of subjects of federal significance, unlike other listed cities that act as regional centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Decisions on the election system of the mayor are made at the level of subjects.
Vedomosti wrote about the discussion of the abolition of direct elections in Khabarovsk, but the city authorities deny this.
Is it possible to cancel direct elections in St. Petersburg?
Short. There were prerequisites for this, but now there are no such conversations.
Read more. In April 2022, the media wrote almost daily about the possibility of canceling direct elections of the heads of regions throughout the country. For example, RBC and Kommersant, for example, told about this with reference to sources in power. It was even assumed that President of Russia Vladimir Putin will announce the cancellation of direct elections of the heads of regions during a visit to St. Petersburg.
The Kremlin denied plans for the All -Russian cancellation of direct elections of the heads of regions, and the April forecasts of journalists and their sources were not justified. But legally, all regions have the opportunity to switch to indirect elections - and gradually almost all regions of Russia came to this model. The source of Vedomosti in the Presidential Administration in November 2022 said that AP "does not have a common position on the cancellation of direct elections, rather a fundamental position not to return them."
Since April, in St. Petersburg, the potential abolition of direct elections of the governor has not been discussed. Rotonda then wrote that the authorities of St. Petersburg supported the refusal of direct elections of the governor, but in Smolny they did not comment on this. When canceling direct elections, the governor will choose deputies of the Legislative Assembly.
The election of the governor of St. Petersburg should be held in September 2024.
Photo on the cover: kremlin.ru