Former vice-governor of Primorye Voloshko was elected chairman of the regional parliament

Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Primorsky Territory at their meeting today, November 29, elected Anton Voloshko, who previously served as vice-governor of Primorye for domestic policy, as speaker of the regional parliament.

Mr. Voloshko’s candidacy was nominated by the United Russia faction, which includes 21 of the 40 deputies of the Primorye parliament. The head of the majority faction, Sergei Slepchenko, assured that the candidate is “a systemic person who knows the goals and objectives facing the Primorsky Territory.” The governor of the region, Oleg Kozhemyako, also expressed confidence that Anton Voloshko “will competently and skillfully work as chairman.” No alternative candidates were nominated.

During the secret ballot, United Russia member Voloshko received 35 votes from deputies in his support, two ballots were declared invalid (37 out of 40 deputies were present at the session). The outcome of the vote means that Voloshko’s candidacy was also supported by members of the second largest faction – the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which includes 12 parliamentarians.

The post of speaker of parliament was vacant after Oleg Kozhemyako, who was elected in September of this year to the post of governor of the Primorsky Territory for a second term, as well as predicted “Kommersant” signed a resolution granting the powers of a representative from the regional executive branch in the Federation Council to Alexander Rolik, who previously served as chairman of the regional legislative assembly.

43-year-old Anton Voloshko is a long-time member of the team of Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako. He worked as the first deputy governor of the Sakhalin region in 2017–2018, when Mr. Kozhemyako was the head of this region. After the latter was elected governor of Primorye in 2018, Anton Voloshko became responsible for the internal policy of the region.

Mr. Voloshko was a deputy of the Primorye Legislative Assembly elected On October 29, in the by-elections in single-mandate constituency No. 21. By-elections in this constituency were called after the regional parliament early terminated the parliamentary powers of Dmitry Nazarets, a member of the United Russia faction, on July 26. How reported at a meeting of the Legislative Assembly, the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Deputy Ethics, Vsevolod Romanov, since July 2022, Mr. Nazarets has been outside Russia and has systematically not performed the duties of a deputy, not taking part in sessions of the Legislative Assembly.

Alexey Chernyshev, Vladivostok