Two of the 17 participants in the competition will compete for the post of head of Novosibirsk
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Novosibirsk hosted the first mayoral competition in the history of the city on Thursday. Based on the results of two rounds, the competition commission admitted two of the 17 applicants to the finals: Deputy of the Novosibirsk City Council from the Green Party Igor Ukraintsev and Vice-Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Maxim Kudryavtsev. Their nominations will be put to a vote by the city council. The expert believes that Mr. Kudryavtsev is the favorite, but his rival may also be offered a post in the city government.
Amendments to the regional law abolishing direct elections of the mayor of Novosibirsk were adopted by the regional legislative assembly in February 2023. After this, similar changes were made to the city charter. In December, the City Council approved the procedure for holding a competition for the post of mayor. At the same time, the last head of the city elected by the residents, communist Anatoly Lokot, went on vacation and then resigned.
21 applicants submitted applications for participation in the competition, but the day before the start of the selection, four candidates refused to participate in it, including the Vice-Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Roman Telenchinov and the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the region Maxim Ostanin. The remaining 17 applicants had to pass a test on knowledge of the powers of local governments in the first round and score at least 16 points.
The test included 30 questions, including 10 closed questions with suggested answer options, 15 open questions where you were asked to formulate your own answer, as well as a block with case descriptions: competition participants talked about specific actions as mayor in different situations. “All questions were related to documents on the powers of local governments. The candidates were given 90 minutes to complete the work, after which independent experts checked them for 60 minutes and selected participants in the second round,” said First Deputy Governor Yuri Petukhov. Before the exam, candidates were warned that it was forbidden to use gadgets and notebooks during testing, and their phones were also taken away, said City Council Speaker Dmitry Asantsev.
According to the results of the first round, ten applicants scored less than 10 points, four – less than 16, and only two candidates fulfilled the established standard, receiving more than 20 points.
They were deputy of the Novosibirsk City Council from the Green party Igor Ukraintsev and vice-governor Maxim Kudryavtsev. As Yuri Petukhov explained, the most difficult for most participants was the section with questions about the powers of the mayor.
One of the candidates, unemployed Olesya Yakhontova, complained to reporters that there was not enough time to complete the tests: “The questions are worthy for choosing a candidate for the position of mayor, but these are not just questions about knowledge of the law.” Military serviceman and SVO participant Alexander Trushakin, who was one of the first to apply for the competition, called the questions appropriate to the level of the future mayor: “Some questions required you to express your position, and your position is always subjective.” And Igor Ukraintsev compared the exam to defending a thesis at a university. “The questions are very difficult, but if you know the material and have dealt with the documents discussed there, then they are easy to answer,” he noted, admitting that the most difficult thing was to solve the case.
The second stage of the competition was the presentation of the applicants’ programs and their interview with members of the selection committee. Candidates had to talk about the problems of the city and ways to solve them.
Igor Ukraintsev told reporters that in his program he focused on solving social and transport problems. “The last thesis with which I came out was to formulate the philosophy of the city, and this caused the greatest emotional reaction from the commission. I am convinced that today Novosibirsk does not have a mission and the mayor of the city should present this mission for discussion,” he added.
Maxim Kudryavtsev refused to talk to journalists. According to the results of the second round, he scored 4.48 points, Igor Ukraintsev – 2.89. By the decision of the competition commission, both were recognized as winners of the selection procedure. On April 16, they will have to present their programs at a session of the City Council and answer questions from deputies, after which a secret vote will take place on two candidates. The inauguration of the new mayor is scheduled for April 26.
Political scientist Vladimir Leontyev calls Mr. Kudryavtsev the favorite in the upcoming vote. “The head of the region, Andrei Travnikov, has a favorable attitude towards Maxim Kudryavtsev. This is understandable, since the governor will have to work closely with the mayor. Igor Ukraintsev has not yet reached this level,” the expert believes. In his opinion, after the competition, Mr. Ukraintsev can head one of the city departments, which will give him the necessary managerial experience.
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