Press Release, 10.02.2023

https://youtu.be/PL0F-9Z3Ao4

On 9 February, the administration of Novgorod held public hearings on changing the Charter of the city. The ruling United Russia party decided to change, on the threshold of elections, the ratio between deputies that should be elected on party lists and single-mandate deputies. Up to the present, the Novgorod City Duma has been elected on a parity basis, but United Russia decided to reduce the number of deputies on party lists to ten and increase the number deputies elected as single-mandate to 20. The Novgorod Duma Chairman, Alexei Mityunov, elected from United Russia, was the formal initiator of the change.

Anna Cherepanova, Chair of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko, Oksana Sergeyeva, a deputy from Yabloko in the Novgorod district, and Ksenia Cherepanova, a member of the Yabloko party, opposed the changes to the city charter.

Anna Cherepanova said in her speech that on 14 January, 2022, almost a year ago, the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party, of which she was a member, adopted the following statement: Yabloko was for ensuring the representation of voters and against political monopoly. This statement was dedicated to the political campaign to cancel party lists in the elections, which had been unfolding in many cities and regions of Russia in recent years – in Yaroslavl, Novosibirsk, and Tomsk. “Now it has come to Novgorod. We have always believed that this is an attempt by the bankrupt ruling party to maintain its political monopoly and secure a fabricated majority for itself. Deputy of the Duma of Novgorod from United Russia, Alexei Mityunov, proposes to reduce party lists in the Duma of Novgorod by increasing the number of single-members. For what? The answer is obvious – to maintain the power,” she noted.

Anna Cherepanova also stressed, that a similar reform in the Novgorod Regional Duma had resulted in turning the Duma into one big political mass grave, with quite meetings, without any disputes, like in a cemetery, and all the work of deputies at public meetings reduced to pressing the “for” button – voting for everything that the executive branch offers.

The Yabloko party is against such changes to the City Charter and the reduction of deputies on party lists, we believe that the future of Novgorod should be determined by free citizens, and not by officials who will appoint to the City Duma the candidates that the authorities and the ruling party agree on in advance.

Anna CHEREPANOVA

is a member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko,

Chair of the Novgorod regional branch of the party.

Deputy of the Novgorod Duma