Party will be replaced by single-mandate – Newspaper Kommersant No. 25 (7470) of 02/10/2023

Elections to the Yekaterinburg City Duma in September 2023 may be held according to a new scheme: 25 deputies will be elected in single-member districts and only 10 – on party lists. The relevant draft law has been submitted for consideration by the Sverdlovsk Regional Legislative Assembly. Now single-members and “listers” are represented in the municipal parliament on a parity basis (18 to 18). The opposition is confident that the reform will play into the hands of United Russia, while United Russia members explain the amendments by changing the structure of the population.

The draft law submitted to the regional parliament was prepared by the Yekaterinburg parliamentary group, headed by Vice Speaker Viktor Maslakov (United Russia). It is assumed that the total number of deputies in the Duma of the regional center will be reduced from 36 to 35 people, 25 of whom will be elected by the majority system (in single-member districts), and another 10 by proportional (according to party lists). Now the City Duma is formed in the proportion of “50 to 50”: 18 deputies are elected by districts and 18 – by lists.

The head of the press service of the Legislative Assembly, Tatyana Burdakova, told Kommersant that the bill would be considered on February 21. A member of the Ekaterinburg group, Sergei Melekhin, refused to comment on the details of the document, Viktor Maslakov did not answer Kommersant’s calls.

Recall that, according to the results of the 2018 elections, the largest number of seats in the City Duma of Yekaterinburg were received by representatives of United Russia (19 mandates, 13 of them in single-mandate constituencies). The following places were taken by A Just Russia (seven mandates, including three in the districts), the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (six, one in the district), the Liberal Democratic Party (three, one in the district) and Yabloko (one on the list). Elections for a new convocation of the City Duma are scheduled for September 2023.

At the end of 2022, Yekaterinburg Mayor Alexei Orlov said that there was still no final decision on the new election scheme. “We can increase the number of constituencies to 20 so that people can choose who they want to represent in the Duma. We would like to see literate people – both state employees and business, ”he explained to reporters then.

According to the deputy of the City Duma from United Russia, Mikhail Boyarsky, the appearance in the city of a new administrative district, Akademichesky, since 2021, prevents holding elections according to the old scheme: “It has become the eighth district of Yekaterinburg. Now we have a completely different structure of the population, and this makes changes at least in the electoral districts in the Leninsky and Verkh-Isetsky districts. There must be a new cut.”

Representatives of the systemic opposition criticized the proposed changes. In their opinion, the reduction in the number of “listers” will lead to an artificial majority of “United Russia”. “United Russia understands that it does not even have a majority when voting for parties, since the population of Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region is disappointed in the way it conducts social policy,” the secretary of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, vice speaker of the legislative assembly, told Kommersant Alexander Ivachev: And in order to secure a majority for themselves, they are increasing the proportion of deputies elected in single-mandate constituencies. Elections in single-mandate districts are, above all, competitions for moneybags. And United Russia objectively wins more often in these competitions.”

The secretary of the regional branch of the Just Russia – For Truth party, State Duma deputy Andrey Kuznetsov, recalled that before the elections to the Nizhny Tagil Duma in 2022, the deputies changed the municipal charter, switching to a completely majoritarian system, and as a result, United Russia received in the new convocation 100% mandates. “This example shows that in districts controlled by officials, supporters of United Russia are mobilized and turnout is reduced due to low awareness of citizens about the elections. And this leads to the fact that mainly mobilized electorate, state employees come to participate in the elections,” Mr. Kuznetsov said.

The changes are being made in order to increase the loyalty of the City Duma towards the head of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, political analyst Alexander Belousov believes. “Alexey Orlov got a Duma, to which he had nothing to do at all (he was elected in 2021.— “b”), so the nature of their relationship turned out to be such that the Duma was independent and it had even more leverage on the head of the city than he had on the deputies, ”explains the expert. In his opinion, Mr. Orlov was able to “find contact with the Duma”, but he will still try to change the current alignment. “The mayor is a political position, and the task of every politician is to increase his influence, and he is now going to do it. Candidates in single-mandate constituencies are more dependent on the executive than party constituencies. Here, the position of Alexei Orlov on each nominee has a lot of weight, ”concludes Mr. Belousov.

Katerina Yakusheva, Yekaterinburg