City Duma of Tomsk asks Legislative Assembly to return direct mayoral elections in the city

On June 6, the Tomsk Duma adopted an appeal to the regional parliament with a request to return the direct elections of the mayor, canceled in December 2022. The initiative was initiated by an independent deputy Igor Lyutaev, the document was supported by 16 people, two voted against (20 people in the City Duma in total). The authors of the appeal believe that the model of electing the mayor based on the results of a competition from among the candidates presented by the competition commission “has shown itself to be ineffective.” On April 11, the election of the mayor of the city did not take place due to the self-withdrawal of both candidates who passed the competition (initially eight people participated in it).

Direct elections take into account “the existing unique experience of the municipality”: since 1996, the mayor of Tomsk has been elected through direct elections. “For 30 years, a tradition has developed, according to which the decision to elect the head of the municipality is made by all residents who have the right to vote,” the authors of the appeal say in an explanatory note to it.

The appeal to the legislature of the region was the penultimate one on the agenda, and the first was the appointment of a second competition for the post of mayor. It will be held on August 22, and on September 5, deputies of the City Duma will have to choose a mayor from among the candidates who have passed the competition.

Since November 13, 2020, the duties of the mayor have been performed by Mikhail Ratner. The last elected mayor, Ivan Klein, was detained that day in a criminal case on corruption. On December 30, 2021, the court sentenced him to two years in a penal colony and a fine of 200,000 rubles, the decision entered into force on July 29, 2022.

United Russia does not have a majority in the Tomsk City Duma. In addition to all parliamentary parties, deputies from Yabloko sit in the representative body. Vedomosti sent a request to the legislature of the region.

A day earlier, on June 5, the election commission of the Novosibirsk region for the third time accepted an application for a referendum on the return of direct mayoral elections, canceled in February. The materials were sent to the legislature, which will check them for compliance with the requirements of federal and regional legislation. Anton Kartavin, an independent deputy of the city council of Novosibirsk, considers the next stage “the most difficult”, since it was the regional parliament that a few months earlier decided to cancel the election of the mayor of Novosibirsk.

Since 2014, the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Lokot, has been twice elected to the post of mayor of Novosibirsk. The five-year term of office of the mayor expires in April 2024, after which, in accordance with the amendments adopted this year, a competition for the post of mayor will be appointed. The city council of Novosibirsk will elect a mayor from among the candidates approved by the competition commission.

At the moment, the mayors of five regional capitals of Russia are elected in direct elections – in Abakan, Anadyr, Ulan-Ude, Khabarovsk and Yakutsk.

The return of the discussion on the return of direct elections of mayors indicates that the political forces in the regions have felt that the center is now not up to control over the municipalities, says political analyst Ilya Grashchenkov. The topic of the return of direct elections of mayors can serve as one of the points of consolidation of the opposition at the local level, political scientist Alexander Kynev believes.