The prosecutor complained about the “delay” – Picture of the day – Kommersant

The prosecutor’s office of the Ulyanovsk region will check the legitimacy of the City Duma’s postponement of the announcement of the competition for the post of mayor of Ulyanovsk. The initiator of the check was the coordinator of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sergei Marinin, who believes that the January amendment, which made it possible to postpone the launch of the selection procedure for mayoral candidates for several months, should not have retroactive effect. Meanwhile, the City Duma planned to appoint an already once “overdue” competition for a position that had become vacant in November last year already this Wednesday.

The decision to hold a competition for the position of the head of Ulyanovsk is listed as the first item on the agenda of the meeting of the Ulyanovsk City Duma, scheduled for February 22. The second point is the formation of a competitive commission. It consists of ten members, half of whom are appointed by the City Duma and half by the governor of the region. The mayor will be elected by the deputies of the City Duma from among the candidates selected by the competition commission.

The previous mayor of Ulyanovsk, Dmitry Vavilin, resigned on November 28, 2022, announcing on his Telegram channel that he had been offered a senior position in the military-industrial complex. According to the “competition procedure” in force at that time, the City Duma was obliged to launch this procedure “no later than two months from the date of early termination of the powers of the head of the city,” that is, no later than January 28, 2023. However, on January 27, the deputies, referring to the need to bring the said document in line with federal legislation, amended it, replacing the two-month period with wording similar to the norm of the federal law “On the General Principles of Organizing Local Self-Government”: “In the event of early termination of the powers of the head of the municipality the election of the head of the municipality is carried out no later than six months from the date of such termination of powers.

Thus, according to the new rules, the competition can be scheduled no later than mid-April. According to Kommersant’s sources close to the leadership of the City Duma, the delay could be due to the fact that the main candidate, who was planned for the post of mayor, “did not receive final approval” from higher levels of government.

However, on February 21, the coordinator of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sergei Marinin, turned to the prosecutor of the Ulyanovsk region, Andrey Terebunov, with a request “to conduct an audit and take prosecutorial response measures on the fact that deputies of the Ulyanovsk City Duma violated the deadline for announcing a competition for filling the post of head of the city.” The politician said that the decision to cancel the two-month period “was made behind the scenes in violation of the regulations”, and “in the list of draft decisions of the City Duma on its website, such a project could not be found.” “At the same time, the new rule of procedure can be applied to the announcement of a competition only in relation to the next head of Ulyanovsk,” since the rule in the previous version was in force during the early termination of Dmitry Vavilin’s powers, Mr. Marinin emphasized. In this regard, he demanded to cancel the hearing scheduled for February 21 on the announcement of the competition and the formation of the competition commission.

Sergey Marinin explained to Kommersant that the decision of the City Duma “should regulate the legal relations that have arisen again,” “but Vavilin’s resignation occurred when the previous version of the order was in effect, which means that the established new rules should not have retroactive effect.” “In any case, the adoption of retrospective regulations directly violates the rights and freedoms of the inhabitants of Ulyanovsk,” added the liberal democrat. Mr. Marinin did not explain why the forthcoming decision of the City Duma to announce the competition, if the deadlines had already passed almost a month ago, did not explain, but noted that the prosecutor’s office would need time “for a more detailed study of the circumstances.”

It was not possible to find out the position of the City Duma on this issue. Duma speaker Ilya Nozhechkin and chief of staff Oksana Karpova were not available for comment, and the press service of the City Duma did not respond to Kommersant’s request, saying that explanations would be given “within seven days.” Whether the consideration of the issues scheduled for Wednesday will now be canceled is still unknown: the Kommersant prosecutor’s office only said that “Marinin’s appeal has been received and it will be considered.”

The ex-deputy of the City Duma, member of the Public Chamber of the Ulyanovsk Region, lawyer Grigory Kalenov called the situation “quite interesting”, noting that “now, in any case, the previously silent speaker of the City Duma will have to voice his position and explain these actions.” According to Mr. Kalenov, the LDPR’s position on this issue is “quite strong” because “it is wrong to change the rules retrospectively.” Honorary lawyer of the Russian Federation Lyudmila Moroz agrees with him, noting that “the City Duma gave its position retroactive effect”, but “everything should be counted from the moment of resignation, when other rules were in effect”, so that “a certain logic in the actions and requirements of the Liberal Democratic Party in this case There is”.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk