Regional deputies in Russia’s republic of Karelia have passed the first reading of a bill to reinstate mayoral elections in the region’s cities after they were canceled last year, the Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday. City council deputies in Petrozavodsk, the region’s capital, ousted Mayor Galina Shirshina from office after canceling mayoral elections in the republic. Petrozavodsk was one of the few Russian cities with an elected mayor not from the ruling United Russia party. The small, industrial city, built on the shores of Lake Onezhskoye, had hosted a battle between its opposition mayor and its legislative assembly.
Shirshina, 37, was an independent candidate in the 2013 election race supported by the liberal Yabloko party, and won a surprise victory against incumbent mayor Nikolai Levin of United Russia.
The local legislature, made up predominantly of United Russia deputies, presented Shirshina with an “unsatisfactory” mark during the annual evaluation of her work in June 2015.
At the same time, Petrozavodsk lawmakers introduced an amendment to the city charter that canceled the city’s mayoral elections in accordance with an earlier decision to cancel elections made in the regional parliament.
Full Article: Russian Region Cancels Elections, Ousts Mayor, Reinstates Elections | News | The Moscow Times.