Tomsk mayor will pass the party commission – Picture of the day – Kommersant

The City Duma of Tomsk on Tuesday appointed a competition for the selection of candidates for the post of mayor. This procedure will be held for the first time since the abolition of direct elections of the mayor at the end of last year. The competition commission included representatives of five opposition parties, but this, according to the expert, should not inspire United Russia (ER) anxiety about the outcome of the upcoming vote, the expert believes.

Deputies of the City Duma of Tomsk have appointed a competition for the selection of candidates for the post of mayor on March 15. The thought apparatus will accept documents from wishing to compete for a position on weekdays from February 10 to March 3.

As repeatedly reported by “Kommersant”, in December last year, the City Duma, on the basis of the regional law adopted at the initiative of United Russia, amended the charter of the city and canceled the direct election of the mayor of Tomsk, although many parliamentarians opposed this reform. Now the head of the regional center will be elected by city deputies from among the candidates (at least two) selected by the competition commission. This method is used in most capitals of Russian regions.

The commission consists of 14 people, 7 of whom are appointed by the Governor of the Tomsk Region, and another 7 by the City Duma. Speaker Chingis Akataev (ER) entered the municipal parliament’s quota “out of competition”, and nine applications were submitted for the remaining six seats. Among the candidates were deputies David Avetyan (“Yabloko”), Anzhelika Belousova (“A Just Russia – For Truth”, SRZP), Yuri Voroshilin (LDPR), Andrey Petrov (KPRF), Maxim Reznikov (ER), Ksenia Starikova (“New people”), Elena Ulyanova (Party of Growth), Igor Lyutaev (deputy group “Clean Tomsk”) and Denis Yarmosh (“Local Self-Government Group”). As a result, rating voting had to be carried out to form the competition commission.

Recall that in the current convocation of the City Duma of Tomsk there are 37 deputies. “United Russia” controls 11 mandates, the Communist Party – 8, “Yabloko” – 4, SRZP – 3, the Liberal Democratic Party and “New People” – 2 each, the Party of Growth – one. Another six independent deputies are members of the Clean Tomsk, Independent Deputies and Local Self-Government Groups (two members each). The session on February 7 was attended by 32 deputies.

Although United Russia has the largest faction in the Duma, Andrei Petrov, vice-speaker of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, received the maximum support: 30 deputies voted for the inclusion of a communist in the competition commission.

The Socialist-Revolutionary Angelica Belousova had one less vote. 25 deputies voted for liberal democrat Yury Voroshilin, 24 for United Russia member Maxim Reznikov.

After the voting, the speaker Chingis Akataev recommended everyone to take part in the competition. However, who actually plans to fight for the post of head of the city is still unknown. Acting mayor of Tomsk Mikhail Ratner has not yet made statements about whether he will participate in the competition.

Aleksey Sevostyanov, head of the information policy department of the Tomsk regional administration, told Kommersant that Governor Vladimir Mazur will appoint members of the competition commission according to his quota by February 27. The next session of the City Duma is scheduled for March 7, so the mayoral elections may not take place until April. To win, a candidate will need to receive the support of at least two-thirds of the deputies. Tomsk political scientist Sergei Shpagin does not rule out a struggle for their votes, but believes that United Russia has no reason to worry about the outcome of the mayoral election.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk