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St. Petersburg voters elected only 30 of 63 municipal
councils in March 14
elections, and just 18 councils
have a full complement of members.
In 92 St. Petersburg districts extra elections are to
be held in the next 8
months, the Union of Democratic
Forces SPS and Yabloko reported Friday.
Only 437 deputies were elected of the 835 candidates
who participated in
the elections, the liberal parties,
which united for the the municipal elections, said.
The City Election Commission has indirectly confirmed
the results, but said
the official results would not be
announced until this week because it was still
processing votes cast in the
presidential elections, which were
held the same day.
"I've heard in Moscow things are not that
overwhelming there either," said
Alexander Gnyotov, head of the
City Election Commission in an interview Monday.
"I'd say the results look quite good," he said. "Look
at the history. In
2000 there were just two local councils
that were formed completely. This time we
overfulfilled our plan."
Only a third of seats were filled when 1,300
candidates contested the
municipal elections in 2000. The number
of seats on these small local councils, which have
almost no money or
power, varies from district to district,
but if only one place is left unfilled, the entire
election in that
district must be rerun.
A law passed by the Legislative Assembly in December
1996 would have
replaced the 21 appointed
authorities with 21 elected councils. But City Hall
then pushed a radical
re-districting law through the
assembly, slicing the city into 111 electoral
subdistricts, each with a
population of 20,000 to 50,000 people.
The main tasks carried out by these councils include
the upkeep of flower
beds, building playgrounds,
buying equipment for local hospitals and polyclinics,
and developing the
outdoor markets and kiosk areas
that are so much a feature of the city.
Boris Vishnevsky, a member of Yabloko faction, blamed
City Hall's
manipulations for generating
white-elephant councils.
"It was done in such a way right from the beginning
when the system of
local councils was approved," he
said Monday in an interview. "They have no money, no
influence, no power,
it's just a decoration to show to
Europe that we have a system of local government."
This year the city budget has allocated 212 million
rubles ($7.44 million)
to finance the elected municipal
councils.
Election observers said the polls were successful in
30 districts only
because voters came to participate in
the presidential elections. Whether new elections
will succeed is
questionable because city law requires a
minimum turnout of 20 percent for the vote to be
valid.
"I was surprised, to be honest, to see even the kind
a result that we got,"
Vishnevsky said "If local elections
are combined with presidential elections the protest
vote is quite high."
Yabloko and SPS offered 20 candidates each for the
elections, 25 of which
were elected in districts No. 18 and
No. 19 giving the liberals a majority on both of the
local councils.
Most candidates ran as independents, Vishnevsky said.
See also:
the original at
www.stpetetimes.com
Regional elections 2004
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