| ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Dec 9 (Reuters) - An
old adversary of Russian
President Vladimir Putin appeared to have a good chance of gaining
a third
term as St Petersburg's governor after elections for a city assembly,
his
opponents conceded on Monday.
Preliminary results of balloting to decide a new 50-seat legislature
for Russia's second city indicated a rough parity between supporters
and opponents of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
Yakovlev's name was not on the ballots, but the run-up to Sunday's
election
was dominated by a furious debate over whether the new assembly
should allow
him to run again.
He can secure a third term if the new city assembly votes by
a simple
majority to change city rules that now limit governors to two
terms in office.
A spokeswoman for a main anti-Yakovlev party conceded the results
suggested
it would be impossible to stop the governor gaining enough support
for a
third term, starting in 2004.
"We fear that now we cannot block a decision for a third
term by the
governor," said Yekaterina Shuvalova, press secretary of
the regional branch
of Yabloko party.
"According to our calculations, right-wing (anti-Yakovlev)
forces will have
only 17 votes in the new Legislative Assembly," she said.
"Our mood in
general is somewhat pessimistic."
Accusations of dirty tricks marked the campaign, threatening
to tarnish the
image of the Tsarist-era capital, which is undergoing a face-lift
approaching
next year's major international summit crowning the 300th anniversary
of its
founding.
With daytime temperatures more than 10 degrees Celsius below
freezing (18
Fahrenheit), only about 26 percent of voters cast ballots, according
to
preliminary results -- just enough to make the vote valid.
Since Yakovlev took charge in 1996, the birthplace of the 1917
Bolshevik
revolution -- loved for the grandeur of its many palaces -- has
gained a
reputation as Russia's crime capital because of high-profile assassinations
and gangland murders.
The rivalry between Putin and Yakovlev dates back to the period
when both
were deputies of city Governor Anatoly Sobchak, an important reform
advocate
at the end of Soviet rule.
Yakovlev staged a political revolt in 1996 and ousted Sobchak.
When Sobchak
died of a heart attack four years later, Putin, then acting president,
said
his mentor had been "killed."
Yakovlev easily won re-election in 2000, when Putin's attempt
to get a
pro-Kremlin candidate elected failed.
See also:
Elections
to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, 2004
Gubernatorial
elections in St.Petersburg, 2002
| 