The competition commission named candidates for the post of mayor of Tomsk

On Tuesday, the competition commission selected three candidates for the post of mayor of Tomsk. Among the finalists, who will be presented to the city duma, are the vice-mayor of Omsk Dmitry Makhinya, the director of the municipal unitary enterprise “Asinovsky United Resource Center” Alexander Vulf and the director of LLC “Proftrans” Igor Olkhovsky. Earlier, the candidacy of Mr. Makhini was publicly supported by United Russia Governor Vladimir Mazur. At the same time, a number of members of the competition commission, representing opposition parties, expressed disagreement with its decision, speaking in favor of introducing more candidates to the City Duma. This may complicate the prospects of Dmitry Makhini, who needs to enlist the support of two-thirds of the deputies to win.

The competition commission, whose meeting was held on August 22 in the City Duma, heard eight candidates for the post of mayor of Tomsk and decided to put three candidates to the vote of the municipal parliament. These are the Vice Mayor of Omsk Dmitry Makhinya, the director of the MUP “Asinovsky United Resource Center” Alexander Wolf and the director of LLC “Proftrans” Igor Olkhovsky. As Kommersant reported, on July 26, Governor Vladimir Mazur supported Mr. Makhinya. “Problems need to be solved 24/7, to put things in order in the city economy, to help businesses, to hear people’s opinions. I found a person who is ready for this,” he said.

The competitive commission for the selection of candidates for mayor of Tomsk consists of 14 people. Seven of them were appointed by the governor, seven more represent the Just Russia, LDPR, Yabloko, United Russia, Communist Party and New People factions of the City Duma, as well as the Clean Air parliamentary group. The chairman of the commission is the first vice-governor Andrey Dunaev.

According to Kommersant’s information, the competition commission made this decision primarily thanks to the consolidated vote of the governor’s representatives. Commission member from United Russia, Ilya Leontiev, told Kommersant that his assessment of the candidates generally coincided with the final decision, although he voted for four applicants. “The problems of the city are noted by all candidates in approximately the same way. In the top are landscaping, roads, excavations, housing and communal services, etc. In this, everyone was similar, and everyone has a sense of indifference. But if we are talking about tools, how a person plans to achieve certain declared indicators, then it seemed to us that those presented (to the City Duma.— “b”) candidates most fully meet this criterion,” Mr. Leontiev assessed the results of the selection.

The opinion of the majority of members of the commission from among the deputies did not coincide with the final decision. So, Igor Lyutaev (Clean Air) noted that among the screened out were two strong candidates – City Duma deputy from A Just Russia Inga Pervushina and Evgeny Makarenko, who worked in the mayor’s office of Tomsk, the administration of the Tomsk region, the government of Ingushetia and the Ministry for the Development of the Far East. “Instead, they brought in, in my opinion, extras – Wolf and Olkhovsky,” he added.

“I suggested a normal option: let’s make a collective list decision of all of them (eight candidates.— “b”) to recommend for inclusion in the ballot for secret ballot for the Duma. But to reject someone for unknown reasons simply by voting (in the competition commission.— “b”) I consider it unworthy of a relationship with candidates for the post of mayor, ”Vasily Eremin, a member of the commission from Yabloko, told Kommersant.

Andrey Petrov, vice-speaker of the City Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that he also voted for all candidates who “turned out to be more prepared and developed in their areas” than the participants in the first contest, declared invalid in April. “All were worthy to present their programs in the Duma. In my opinion, the competition commission is an unnecessary filter,” LDPR representative Yury Voroshilin agreed with his colleague. He also considers the absence of a female candidate from the shortlist as “some kind of injustice”. Mr. Voroshilin himself did not participate in the voting, as he left the meeting “for personal reasons.” “Some of the candidates who were supported by me, unfortunately, did not get the required number of votes. It is not in my competence to evaluate the decisions of the members of the commission – this is the subjective position of each of them, ”Ksenia Starikova, a representative of the New People, commented to Kommersant on the results of the meeting.

The City Duma will consider the proposed candidates on September 5.

To win, a candidate for mayor needs at least 25 votes – two-thirds of the list of deputies, despite the fact that United Russia has only ten seats in the Duma.

As the speaker of the City Duma, Chingis Akataev, explained in his Telegram channel, if no one overcomes this bar, then in a month there will be a second round, where the two candidates with the largest number of votes will enter.

The deputies, dissatisfied with the decision of the competition commission, are already discussing possible options. “To date, we have not yet developed our position. But you can vote not for Makhinya, but for some other person,” suggested, for example, Vasily Eremin. First Vice-Governor Andrey Dunaev, in turn, urged the deputies “to make a choice between personal ambitions and the interests of Tomsk citizens.”

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk