In Novosibirsk, the cancellation of direct mayoral elections was approved

Deputies of the city council of Novosibirsk adopted by a majority of votes amendments to the city charter to abolish direct elections of the mayor. This is reported by TASS.

As “Taiga.Info” notes, 38 deputies voted for the cancellation of the elections, five were against, and four did not vote. The meeting was attended by city council chairmen Yevgeny Yakovenko and Yevgeny Lebedev, who at the beginning of the year announced that they were going to war in Ukraine.

Amendments to the charter, which were eventually adopted in two readings, at the suggestion of Andrey Gudovsky, a deputy from “United Russia”, were not even discussed.

“Coalition-2020” reports that the mayor of the city, Anatoly Lokot, came to the session after the vote.

According to the amendments previously adopted at the regional level, the heads of Novosibirsk and Koltsov will be elected with the help of councils of deputies from among the candidates proposed by the competition commission. Half of it is formed by the governor, a member of United Russia, Andrey Travnikov.

• Novosibirsk is the only millionaire city, apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, where direct elections of heads remained. The last election of the mayor of Novosibirsk was held in 2019. On them, Anatoly Lokot (CPRF) was re-elected for a new term, gaining more than 50% of the votes. The second place was taken by the head of Navalny’s local staff, businessman Sergey Boyko. In the fall of 2021, Boyko left the country due to the threat of criminal prosecution.
• Koltsovo is a working village 25 kilometers from Novosibirsk, which has the status of a science city. It has been headed by Nikolay Krasnikov since 1991.
• After the decision of the authorities of Novosibirsk, only residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, which are administratively considered regions of Russia, can directly elect the head of the cities of millionaires.