Press Release, 9.10.2019

The Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko has prepared a bill on the return of direct elections of the Mayor of Chelyabinsk, the capital of the region. The regional branch plans to introduce its legislative initiative in the regional Legislative Assembly through Yelena Vakhtina, head of the Yabloko faction in the Council of Deputies of the Central District of Chelyabinsk, for this the Council should support the party’s initiative.

In addition, Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, called on municipal deputies from other district councils to join the Yabloko’s initiative.

“This action, if it does not immediately return the right to directly elect the Mayor of Chelyabinsk, can become a kind of open sociological survey of municipal deputies, where every interested citizen will be able to hear the position of his deputy at a meeting of the relevant council. If there is at least one deputy in each of the seven districts and the City Duma [willing to discuss this], we will have eight meetings with a discussion of this issue and the possibility of introducing it into the regional Assembly,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov noted.

Shcherbakov also added that the party was ready to submit a draft decision on introducing a legislative initiative, a corresponding bill with all the necessary annexes, as well as provide consultation on the procedure within the framework of the Centre for Municipal Policy and Legislative Initiatives of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko.

Recently the Chelyabinsk branch of the                Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration conducted a poll of Chelyabinsk residents, according to which, the majority (68%) of the population supported the direct election of the head of the city.

At present the Mayor of Chelyabinsk is not elected in direct elections, but by the City Duma from among the candidates represented by the competition commission based on the results of the competition. At the same time, the competition commission comprises half of the deputies of the City Duma, who were also not directly elected by the residents but were proposed by the Governor, who, as the highest official of the regional government, does not have the right to influence local authorities. Almost all members of the competition commission were closely associated with the ruling United Russia party. As a result of this procedure, Vladimir Elistratov, United Russia member and former deputy head of the city, became head of Chelyabinsk on February 26, 2019.  However, already on June 23, the city head wrote a letter of resignation, not waiting for a court decision on the law suit of the Yabloko party on cancellation of the results of the competition which led to his election the Mayor of the city.