We talked excellently – Newspaper Kommersant No. 212 (7413) dated 11/16/2022

On Tuesday, public hearings were held in Tomsk on replacing direct mayoral elections with a competitive procedure. Representatives of trade union organizations tried to convince the audience that the reform would bring a “real specialist” to power, and they seem to have succeeded: the majority of residents supported the amendments. Now they must be approved by the Tomsk deputies, but it will not be easy to collect the necessary two-thirds of the votes in the opposition City Duma.

About 90 people came to public hearings on the draft amendments to the charter of the municipality. There were not enough seats in the City Duma meeting room for everyone, and some of the listeners were accommodated in the hall where the online broadcast was going on. More than 20 people decided to speak, so the hearing dragged on for almost four hours.

Supporters of the abolition of direct elections were mainly members of trade union organizations. For example, Oleg Merzlyakov, representing trade unions in the non-manufacturing sector, said that in connection with “the events taking place in the country,” mayoral elections should not become “a platform where political ambitions are satisfied.” Elena Tsoi from the regional Federation of Trade Union Organizations suggested that the saved funds be used “to address issues of local importance” and recalled that the residents of Tomsk are already reluctant to visit polling stations (the turnout in the mayoral elections in 2018 was 19.8%.— “b”). The question from the audience, is it not time to cancel the elections to the city and regional dumas, she was not embarrassed: “We need to start with something.” Lyudmila Terkina, an activist of the All-Russian Electric Trade Union, also supported the change in the charter, but she could not explain why the mayors elected by the residents did not suit her. “This is not correct,” she said as she left the podium. Finally, Lyubov Pechkina, an activist from the trade union organization of the Tomsk Shipping Company, recalled the times when “we did not elect the heads of district executive committees and they normally performed their tasks.”

Elman Yusubov, ex-head of the Tomsk Regional Electoral Committee, also spoke out in support of the reform. He called himself “a supporter of democracy and direct elections”, but stated that the regional law has already been adopted and must be followed. “In such a situation, it is time for the deputies of the majority party to overcome the pride of their own superiority, and for the parties that have endowed themselves with the status of opposition, it is time to remove the make-up of servility,” Mr. Yusubov summarized ornately.

Defenders of direct elections stressed that the competitive procedure deprives citizens of their constitutional rights. Andrey Seregin, a member of one of the precinct electoral committees, called the amendments “criminal and anti-people”, pensioner Olga Kazulina urged not to save on “self-expression of the people”, and engineer Andrei Petrov cited the opinion of political scientists that under “competitive” mayors, the housing stock in the city begins to degrade faster .

The speaker of the United Russia City Duma, Chingis Akataev, completed the series of speeches, arguments and barbs. He supported the reform, as only it can improve the situation in the urban economy. “Excavations, roads, lack of storm water, a huge problem of stray dogs, pruning of trees, lack of sidewalks, lack of hot water at the right time when it should be, passenger transport,” the speaker listed the problems of Tomsk that the new mayor has to solve.

The result of the public hearings was determined by an open vote: 65 people supported the changes, 19 were against. According to the head of the City Duma commission on regulations and legal issues, Ilya Leontiev, before and during the hearings, the organizers received another 58 opinions against the amendments and 13 in favor.

The session of the City Duma of Tomsk, at which the amendments are to be approved, is scheduled for December 6. As Mr. Akatayev explained, two-thirds of the votes are needed to make a decision, that is, at least 25 out of 37. But it will not be easy to assemble such a “package”: United Russia has only 11 deputies in the Duma, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has eight, and Yabloko has – four, “Fair Russia – For Truth” – three, “New People” and the Liberal Democratic Party – two each, one more seat for the Party of Growth. Six deputies are not members of factions. According to one of them, Denis Yarmosh, all six “independents” oppose the abolition of direct elections. Yabloko adheres to the same position, Tatyana Levchenko, chairman of its regional branch, confirmed. The Socialist-Revolutionary deputies also actively supported the preservation of the charter in its current edition. On October 27, the Communists in the regional Duma supported the amendments, however, as Andrei Petrov, vice-speaker of the City Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Kommersant, the faction in the City Duma will determine its position “closer to the session.”

“No one can say how this issue will go,” admitted Chingis Akataev, summing up the results of the hearings. As Stepan Mikhailov, head of the regional Duma committee on legislation, told Kommersant, the city parliament is obliged to bring the charter in line with the regional law within three months. If this does not happen, the prosecutor’s office will force the City Duma to do so.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk