Yelena Vakhtina was elected Deputy Chair of the Housing and Utilities Commission, but she was not delegated to the City Duma

Press Release, 18.09.2019

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Yelena Vakhtina, deputy from the Yabloko party, formed a faction in the Council of Deputies of the Central Region. The goal of the faction is to implement the Healthy Changes programme for the Chelyabinsk.

Yelena Vakhtina was elected Deputy Chair of the Permanent Commission on the Housing and Utilities Council and entered the commission on land improvement and land use, but deputies refused to delegate Yelena Vakhtina to the City Duma of Chelyabinsk despite the high support of Yabloko from the Chelyabinsk citizens in the elections and the address of the regional branch of the party to deputies.

Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, emphasised that proceeding from objective distribution of seats in the City Duma (49) and the total number of votes cast for candidates from the Yabloko party (8,827), Yabloko voters have the right to be represented in the Chelyabinsk City Duma since the fair representation rate in it is based on the total number of voters, i.e., about 7,000 votes.

“There have been no representatives of the Yabloko party in the City Duma for more than ten years, and these were far from the best years for the development of the city. Our party is the only one in Chelyabinsk that has a work plan and a substantive programme for the city development, rather than slogans,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov said.

“Only three of the twenty deputies of the Central District Council supported the proposal to delegate Yelena Vakhtina to the City Duma. Obviously, the decision was made before the meeting and was an order from the authorities contrary to the opinion of the residents. The main criterion for delegating deputies to the City Duma is loyalty and devotion to the present policies of the authorities,” the Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko added.

It should be noted that the Chelyabinsk City Duma is formed from deputies of district councils, who, in turn, delegate their representatives to the City Duma.