St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly to consider Yabloko’s bill on easing of municipal filter
Press release, 27.11.2017
On 29 November, the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly will consider Yabloko’s bill on the repeal of the municipal filter in gubernatorial elections for candidates nominated by parliamentary parties and parties, which have representation in the regional parliaments.
“The best thing to do is to repeal the municipal filter at all. But repealing it for the parties which have proved that they already have the support of the citizens and do not need to prove it again is the first step at least,” said Boris Vishnevsky, the head of Yabloko’s faction.
Mikhail Amosov, one of the authors of the bill, stressed that the current system of nomination of candidates for St. Petersburg governor deprived the majority of the residents of the candidate they supported.
According to the current legislation, a candidate for governor of St. Petersburg must collect 10 per cent of signatures of municipal deputies representing 84 municipal out of 111. At the same time, 1145 mandates out of 1482 belong to United Russia. Other parties, which entered the regional parliament, have only 117 representatives at the municipal level. In fact, this means that opposition parties will hardly be able to nominate a gubernatorial candidate without the ruling party’s approval.
Posted: November 29th, 2017 under Elections, Gubernatorial Elections, Regional and Local Elections, YABLOKO's faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly.