Voting results: Thirty-eight of the second intake's 50 deputies retained their seats. This is entirely in keeping with political scientists' forecasts. However, in terms of the electoral impact on the distribution of seats in the legislative assembly among various political forces, here observers' opinions differ.

For example, State Duma Deputy Igor Artemyev, former St Petersburg deputy governor and an implacable opponent of the current administration, believes that St Petersburg will have a weak parliament which will "decide little" since "corporate interest will be exchanged for a deputy's seat." At the same time Andrey Likhachev, head of [local energy provider] Lenenergo and a local Union of Right-Wing Forces leader, talks of a convincing victory for the right-wingers and consequently of a radical change in the situation that enables the legislative assembly to seize power from the Smolnyy [St Petersburg City Hall]. Some specialists claim that as a result of these elections the number of Governor [Vladimir] Yakovlev's supporters in the city's parliament has decreased and consequently that there is virtually no chance left of amending the City Charter to enable the current head to run for a third term.

At the same time, in their opinion current Federation Council Chairman Sergey Mironov does not have to worry unduly about his future.

While before the elections there was still talk about whether he would remain St Petersburg parliament's representative in the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly, now there are generally no doubts about this. These conclusions are reinforced by sociologists' conclusions. According to the data of public opinion polls carried out on voting day, 50 per cent of voters consider it correct if the new membership legislative assembly's did not make changes to the charter and only 25 per cent support the amendment to the city's fundamental law. At the same time 30 per cent of voters consider it correct for parliament to allow Sergey Mironov to retain the post of St Petersburg's representative in the Federation Council. This was reported to the Rosbalt news agency press centre by Vladimir Vasilyev, head of a political psychology laboratory.

But far from everybody shares this viewpoint. Thus, political scientist Yuriy Kurikalov, the legislative assembly's expert, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta's correspondent that by and large the elections changed nothing in the balance of forces in the city's parliament. In his opinion, more often than not people with a "federal" or "gubernatorial" orientation have been replaced by exactly the same kind of deputies. Consequently, it is still impossible to predict the result of the battle for the third term and Mironov's post.

The breakdown by political blocs and associations looks as follows: Union of Right-Wing Forces plus Yabloko - eight deputies; Science, Industry, and Education - 2; Russian Federation People's Party - 1; Will of Petersburg - 3; One Russia - 4; Political Centre - 1; Independents - 31.

"Left-wing" and "patriotic" forces increased their representation most substantially. The Science, Industry, and Education bloc managed to elect two deputies:in another district a moderate "patriot" was replaced by a more active colleague. The bloc of Union of Right-Wing Forces and Yabloko in actual fact gained virtually nothing from these elections. The allies got their people into three new districts but on the other hand lost three former seats. In all other cases old deputies were replaced by "independents." Here political scientists note one peculiarity of the current elections - representatives of municipal formations appeared among the "independents." Two leaders of municipal formations were elected to the legislative assembly, and several more municipal officials came second in their districts.

It is also interesting to note that the new legislative assembly will miss a hefty four former standing commission chairmen - for legislation; veterans' affairs; education, culture and science; and for the system of state power, local self-government, and the administrative-territorial system. In these districts old deputies were replaced by representatives of political parties and associations. Obviously this is where substantial changes in the new parliament's policy should be expected.

If we are talking about the elections in St Petersburg as a rehearsal for the Duma elections, then this rehearsal can be declared rather unsuccessful. In effect nothing has actually changed in St Petersburg.

See also:
Elections to St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, 2002

Rossiyskaya Gazeta, December 10, 2002