The Orenburg Legislative Assembly refused to return direct elections for the mayor of the regional capital

The Legislative Assembly of the Orenburg Region on Wednesday rejected the initiative of the LDPR faction to return to direct elections of the mayor of the regional capital. The Liberal Democrats insisted that citizens should have the opportunity to “elect the official closest to them,” but the parliamentary majority represented by United Russia did not listen to them. This is not the first attempt by the opposition to return to the direct procedure for electing the mayor of Orenburg: two years ago the communists introduced a similar project, but also to no avail.

Amendments to the law “On the organization of local self-government in the Orenburg region”, proposed by the LDPR faction, provided for a direct procedure for electing the mayor of the administrative center. Now the heads of all municipalities in the region are elected by local deputies from among the candidates selected by the competition commission. Half of its composition is appointed by the representative body, the other by the highest official of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

According to the explanatory note, such a system “virtually guarantees that the competition commission will support the candidacy proposed by the governor.” In addition, residents of Orenburg find themselves “deprived of the opportunity to independently elect the official closest to them—the head of the city,” the Liberal Democrats stated.

The authors of the bill also appealed to the turnout in municipal elections, which, in their opinion, is stimulated by parallel voting for the mayor. Thus, in 2000 and 2004, when the mayor and city council deputies were elected simultaneously, it was 32% and 35.6%, respectively. In 2010, when the head began to be chosen from among the deputies (in 2015 this method was replaced by a competitive system), turnout dropped to 30.7%, and in 2015 – to 25.6%. Finally, in 2020, a record low number of voters turned out to the polls – only 18.8%.

Restoring the institution of direct elections “will make it possible to restore the confidence of citizens in the system of local self-government and increase their activity in managing the affairs of the city,” the LDPR faction summarized.

The initiative of the Liberal Democrats was supported by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. “Using the example of Orenburg, we see that regional influence is increasing, and the city’s independence is sharply compressed,” said the leader of the communists in the legislative assembly, Maxim Amelin. “There is no urban planning policy, everything is decided at the regional level. People want the city to be led by a business executive with an independent view of management processes, but in fact, only convenient regional authorities are appointed.”

Let us note that at the end of 2021, deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation themselves initiated a similar bill, proposing the return of direct elections of heads in all municipalities of the region. Then the communists were supported by representatives of A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) and the Liberal Democratic Party, but members of United Russia, who control the majority of seats in the legislative assembly, rejected the amendments. The exact same thing happened this time.

It is interesting that over the past five years the head of Orenburg has already been replaced four times. The current mayor, Sergei Salmin, was elected by city council deputies in March 2022; he previously served as first vice-mayor. The former head of Orenburg, Vladimir Ilyinykh, was elected to the State Duma in September 2021. Before him, the city was led by Dmitry Kulagin, who in December 2019 moved to the position of vice-governor. Finally, Mr. Kulagin’s predecessor was Evgeny Arapov, the youngest mayor in the history of Orenburg (39 years old at the time of his appointment). In October 2018, deputies dismissed him after allegations of corruption. Later, Mr. Arapov was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and a fine of 15 million rubles. for bribes.

Let us add that the opposition regularly makes attempts to return direct elections of mayors of large cities in different regions, but to no avail.

For example, at the end of August, the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region rejected the initiative of the SRZP, which proposed directly electing the heads of Chelyabinsk and Korkino. At the same time, the City Duma of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region) “wrapped up” a similar project of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. But the reverse process is successfully continuing – the abolition of direct elections: at the end of last year they switched to a competitive system in Tomsk, and at the beginning of this year – in Novosibirsk and the science city of Koltsovo.

Andrey Sazonov, Samara; Andrey Prah