Press release, 14.10.2015
A group of deputies of the Karelia Legislative Assembly appealed to the Constituional Court demanding to aknowledge that the law on cancelling mayoral elections in Petrozavodsk, capital of the Republic, and the Kostomushka city is unconstitutional.

On June 18, the deputies of the Karelian parliament adopted the law which actually cancels direct mayoral elections in Petrozavodsk and Kostomushka.

“Too many prosidure violations took place during the readings, we stated them in our appeal. Moreover, we stressed the unconstitutional character of the decision since the law undermines the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the Republic of Karelia. The right to elect and to be elected was violated, the access to participation in local self-government was limited and so on,” said Emilia Slabuniva, YABLOKO deputy in the Karelian Perliament.

YABLOKO claim that the elections were cancelled to prevent YABLOKO’s Galina Shirshina, the current Mayor, who is popular with the citizens, from being reelected for the next term. Shirshina is an opponent of the Governor of the Republic from the ruling party Alexander Khudilainen. In the past year Karelia saw a huge number of criminal cases based on faked evidence against political opponents of Governor Khudilainen: both members of the YABLOKO party and politicians not related to our party.
More on the situation in the Republic of Karelia