The mayor of Novosibirsk will lose his election – Newspaper Kommersant No. 32 (7477) dated 21.02.

The Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region on Monday passed a bill abolishing the direct elections of mayors of Novosibirsk and the science city of Koltsovo and replacing them with competitive selection. Representatives of United Russia (ER) and the Liberal Democratic Party spoke in favor of changing the model. In addition, the initiative was publicly supported for the first time by United Russia Governor Andrey Travnikov. The Communists warned the head of the region that the abolition of direct elections could worsen his result in the gubernatorial elections in September 2023 if Mr. Travnikov takes part in them. The expert considers this threat exaggerated.

Amendments to the regional law on the organization of local self-government (LSG) adopted on February 20 cancel direct elections of mayors in the last two municipalities of the region where this norm has been preserved so far – in Novosibirsk and Koltsovo. The bill was introduced by ten deputies – representatives of the United Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice and independents.

According to the amendments, the mayor will be elected by the deputies of the municipal parliament from among the candidates approved by the competition commission.

In Novosibirsk, the new model will work after the expiration of the second term of office of the current communist mayor Anatoly Lokot, in September 2024.

The head of the committee on state policy, legislation and local self-government, Igor Umerbaev (ER), who presented the bill at the session, said that the amendments are needed to improve the local self-government system in the region. He did not specify what is wrong with the current system, noting only a decrease in electoral activity in recent years. Mr. Umerbaev proposed to adopt the bill in two readings at once, explaining that it is impossible to make any amendments to the text of the document without changing its general concept.

The alignment of votes in the legislature left no doubt about the outcome of the vote. A simple majority was enough to pass the amendments, while the United Russia has 46 out of 76 mandates in parliament, the Liberal Democratic Party – six, and two more – the Party of Pensioners. Valery Ilyenko, deputy head of the United Russia faction, and Alexander Shcherbak, leader of the LDPR faction, confirmed at the session that deputies from these parties would support the bill. An attempt by his opponents to remove the issue from the agenda failed (“for” only nine deputies voted), after which they outlined their arguments against the abolition of direct elections.

“In my opinion, the attempt of such an initiative is a mistrust of the city residents. Like, you don’t understand anything, and we even deprive you of the right to vote,” Yakov Novoselov (KPRF) said, adding that the proposed version copies the American electoral system.

“Our voter wants his vote to be taken into account and that they can directly participate in the life of the city,” Daria Karaseva, head of the New People faction, supported him. Independent deputy Vyacheslav Ilyukhin was surprised that the option, in which the mayor is elected by the municipal parliament from among its members, is not even considered. “When they choose from among the deputies, the deputies are elected by the people. Do you think the commission is better? Then let the commission appoint the deputies,” he suggested sarcastically.

Two deputies from the party “Fair Russia – For the Truth” (SRZP) did not enter into the discussion. “There was a decision of the faction to vote against the cancellation of the elections. The long-term public position of the SRZP, the leader of our party, Sergei Mironov, is to maintain direct elections of mayors. Based on this, the members of our faction voted against,” Anatoly Kubanov, head of the faction, told Kommersant. And his faction colleague Alexander Teplyakov, commenting on the results of the vote in the first reading, admitted: “As a resident, I understand that a certain crisis has come when five, maximum ten percent of residents vote for a conditional mayor. This is categorically false. On the other hand, there is the position of the party, which says that the elections cannot be cancelled.” Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Andrei Shimkiv described the position of the Right-wing Russians as “both yours and ours.”

During the discussion, Vadim Ageenko (KPRF) warned Andrei Travnikov, United Russia Governor, who was present at the session, that the abolition of direct elections could negatively affect his result in the September 2023 gubernatorial elections. “They offended the townspeople. Do you think the percentage of the city will be added to you? I think not,” he explained his thought.

Mr. Travnikov had not previously unequivocally stated that he intended to run for a second term, but, answering the communist, did not refute his assumption. But for the first time he publicly supported the abolition of direct elections. “I believe that this initiative today is timely and in line with the times. And there is no point in postponing it, nothing will change either in six months or in a year,” the head of the region emphasized.

As a result, the amendments were adopted by 50 votes to 13, with one abstention.

Novosibirsk political scientist Vladimir Leontiev called the opposition’s expectations about the serious impact of the abolition of direct mayoral elections on the vote for the governor in Novosibirsk “very overstated” as “very exaggerated”. “Experience suggests that this situation will not affect the results of the election of the head of the region, unless, of course, someone starts to purposefully promote this topic during the campaign, conducting some unauthorized actions, etc. But I don’t think that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will it will work,” the expert said.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk