Novosibirsk legislature rejects referendum on return of direct mayoral elections

The Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk region on Thursday rejected a proposal to hold a referendum on the return of direct elections of heads of municipalities in the region. The majority of deputies agreed with the conclusion of the legal department of the regional parliament that the issue submitted for voting does not comply with the requirements of the legislation. The initiators of the plebiscite were supported only by the Communists, whose gubernatorial candidate Roman Yakovlev promised that if he wins, his first task in his new post will be to restore direct elections of mayors.

IN February 2023 Novosibirsk legislature canceled direct elections of mayors in the last two municipalities of the region that used this scheme – in Novosibirsk and the science city of Koltsovo. 26 April The Novosibirsk city council made similar changes to the city charter, but even before that, independent deputy of the city council Anton Kartavin announced his intention to hold a referendum for the return of direct elections. As Mr. Kartavin told Kommersant, during the preparations for the plebiscite, its initiators received more than 70 positive responses from deputies of various levels and party affiliations. About a hundred volunteers have been trained to collect signatures in support of the referendum and are “ready for active work,” the deputy added.

June 5 The Regional Electoral Committee accepted the documents of the initiative group and sent them to the Legislative Assembly, which was to assess the compliance of the wording of the referendum question with the current legislation. The organizers of the plebiscite suggested that voters support the inclusion of the following norm in the regional law: “The head of the municipality of the Novosibirsk Region, endowed with the status of a municipal district, municipal district or city district, is elected only in municipal elections on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot for a period of five years and heads the local administration.

June 28 the issue was discussed by the relevant committee of the legislature on state policy, legislation and local self-government (LSG). At its meeting, Tatyana Varda, Head of the Department of Legal Affairs, presented the deputies with a conclusion, which was reached by the lawyers of the Legislative Assembly: “The initiative group for holding a regional referendum proposed the adoption of a bill aimed at changing the procedure for electing the heads of municipal districts, municipal and city districts on the territory of the Novosibirsk Region , which has already been established by the law of the Novosibirsk Region “On Certain Issues of Organizing LSG”, adopted in accordance with the federal law (on LSG.— “b”). Thus, the issue of the initiative group is regulated by these laws and does not meet the requirements of paragraph 2 of Art. 12 of the federal law “On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation” and paragraph 1 of Art. 4 of the law of the Novosibirsk region “On the regional referendum of the Novosibirsk region”. Also, this position is confirmed by the established judicial practice and the legal position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Most members of the committee agreed with lawyers, and its chairman Igor Umerbaev (United Russia) said that “there is more politics in this issue, more PR than concern for residents.”

At the session itself July 6 the discussion took only a few minutes. Roman Yakovlev, who is running for governor from the Communist Party, said that the Communists will abstain from voting, but the return of direct elections is part of their program during the gubernatorial campaign. “Accordingly, if our candidate wins this election, the first bill that will be submitted to the walls of the legislature is a bill on the return of direct elections,” he promised.

The head of the LDPR faction, Alexander Shcherbak, on the contrary, supported the conclusions of the legal department and the decision of the relevant committee: “The initiators of this process (the organization of the referendum.— “b”) could not fail to understand its deliberate futility and contradiction with the law. Therefore, in my opinion, this whole undertaking is nothing more than a PR campaign, this is not the most impressive attempt … by an opposition cell to shake off the dust and at least somehow remind.

As a result, 44 deputies voted against the referendum with the proposed question, with two in favor and 13 abstentions. Another five people did not vote.

“We do not agree with this decision, we will challenge it,” Anton Kartavin answered a question from Kommersant about his future plans.

From the conclusion of the Department of the Legislative Assembly on Legal Affairs, we can conclude that a referendum on issues recorded in the legislation is impossible, says Irina Grebneva, lawyer, managing partner at Grebneva and Partners. In her opinion, this means that supporters of the return of direct elections should seek to amend the legislation in a different way.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk