The competition for the post of mayor of Novosibirsk will be held on April 4 – Kommersant

At its session on February 14, the Novosibirsk City Council appointed the first competition to select candidates for the post of mayor of Novosibirsk. It will take place on April 4. At the end of January ahead of schedule gone communist mayor Anatoly Lokot, who had headed the municipality since 2014, resigned.

Previously, the head of the city was elected by popular vote, but in February 2023 the Legislative Assembly abolished this practice, introducing a competitive procedure instead of elections. The competition committee will consist of eight people. The city council approved four of them according to its quota at the session. These included three United Russia members and one representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Four more members of the commission will be appointed by Governor Andrei Travnikov, who is also the secretary of the regional branch of United Russia.

Reception of documents from potential participants will begin on the morning of March 1 and end on March 15. The competition itself will be held in two stages. Candidates will first pass a written test and advance to the next round provided they answer at least 16 out of 30 questions correctly. Then, during an interview with members of the competition committee, they must receive an average score of at least 2.6 on a five-point scale. At the final stage, at least two candidates must be presented for election at a session of the City Council, in which United Russia members hold 33 of the 50 seats.

During the session, independent candidate Svetlana Kaverzina announced her readiness to run as a candidate for mayor in order to check the progress of the competition procedure.

About how Novosibirsk residents see an ideal mayor – in the Kommersant article “Ours instead of strangers”.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk