United Russia opposed Yabloko’s bill on easing of municipal filter
Press release, 23.11.2017
Members of the Commission on the mechanism of the government of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly delivered a negative opinion on Yabloko’s bill on the easing of the municipal filter in gubernatorial elections for candidates nominated by parliamentary parties and parties, which have representation in the regional parliament of the constituent entity in question.
According to Yabloko’s Boris Vishnevsky, the authorities are trying to justify the current system by protecting elections from unpopular candidates. However, the situation is quite the reverse.
Mikhail Amosov, one of the authors of the bill, stresses that the current system of nomination of candidates for St. Petersburg governor deprives the majority of the residents of the candidate they support.
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 24th, 2017 under Elections, YABLOKO's faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly.