The Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region approved a bill according to which direct elections of mayors will no longer be held in Novosibirsk and the science city of Koltsovo, Interfax reports .
The adopted bill provides that the heads of cities will be elected by representative bodies for a period of five years from the candidates presented by the competition commission. The new rules will come into force after the term of office of the current mayors of Novosibirsk and Koltsovo, Anatoly Lokt and Nikolai Krasnikov, respectively, ends.
Lokot, elected for a second term in 2019, will leave his post in 2024. Krasnikov has been the head of Koltsovo since 1991, the last time he was re-elected in 2020, respectively, his term ends in 2025.
On voting day, a series of pickets were held in front of the building of the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region: activists protested against the cancellation of the mayoral elections.
To date, direct elections of the heads of cities – the administrative centers of the regions have been preserved only in Khabarovsk, Anadyr, Abakan, Yakutsk and Ulan-Ude.