Leader of the Liberal Democratic party of Russia visited Nizhny Novgorod last week. In contradiction to many previous statements governor of Nizhny Novgorod was put on the list of possible candidates for the post of mayor of Moscow. Election results brought victory to United Russia. Find out details in the weekly report by FederalPress.
Leader of the Liberal Democratic party of Russia visited Nizhny Novgorod last week. In contradiction to many previous statements governor of Nizhny Novgorod was put on the list of possible candidates for the post of mayor of Moscow. Election results brought victory to United Russia. Find out details in the weekly report by FederalPress.Liberal democrats
Last week started with a visit of a top profile State Duma official to Nizhny Novgorod. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and the head of Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky came to Nizhny Novgorod to support his party during the municipal elections.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky was asked many questions about the situation with the mayor of Moscow and related corruption issues. He also mentioned his party was for preserving direct elections of mayors even though the party members voted otherwise at critical time. The hope was to remove old officials quickly, but “the process went with difficulties”. Vladimir Zhirinovsky also marked that removing all old governors at once was risky, for they may choose to employ military forces and produce a coup.
Even though Vladimir Zhirinovsky traditionally attracts much attention, his party gathered only 5.7 percent of votes and received just one seat in the Duma.
Cities autonomy
Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Vadim Bulavinov participated in a meeting of the Council of the President of Russia devoted to cities autonomy. Vadim Bulavinov suggested giving municipal authorities powers over control and supervision in the sphere of public services and amenities. Since 2007 this function has been fulfilled by the regional inspection of administrative and technical supervision.
New powers of the city administration are expected to ensure more effective work, both instilling order and tidiness in the street and charging those who violate it. Dmitry Medvedev agreed this might be an important amendment. Draft will be soon prepared.
Political technologies during elections
A press conference was held last week before the elections to warn local citizens against illegal political technologies. Chairman of the regional election commission Stanislav Bisin, regional minister of internal affairs Dmitry Shurov and regional prosecutor representative Elena Zotova spoke about unacceptable methods which had been employed by many candidates this autumn.
9.5 thousand dwellers of the city voted by absentee ballots. Whereas usual amount of absentee ballots normally makes 2.5 thousand. The election commission received many anonymous calls from people telling they were offered money or strictly ordered by employers to take absentee ballots and vote for a certain person at a remote voting point.
Regional minister of internal affairs called this year’s municipal elections “the dirtiest” in the history of Nizhny Novgorod.
Elections results in Nizhny Novgorod
At the municipal elections which were held on October 10, 2010 United Russia gathered 58.4 percent of votes. Then come the communists with 16.1 percent and Fair Russia with 14.5 percent. The next step is to form Duma and then elect new mayor of the city.
Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Valery Shantsev was put on the list of possible candidates for the post of mayor of Moscow. The list was complied by the ruling party United Russia and presented to President Medvedev for review. Now the decision is up to the head person of the country.
Election results in Dzerzhinsk
Elections in Dzerzhinsk attracted much attention since the city still continues to appoint mayors according to the standard procedure of direct general voting.
Current mayor Viktor Portnov fell out of the competition. In the first round of the elections Galina Savchenkova leads with 26.45 percent of votes. Next goes Viktor Sopin (25.93 percent). The second round will decide who of the two candidates becomes new mayor.