Pensioners Triumphant at Local Elections
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — The populist Pensioners’ Party narrowly beat out United Russia in Tomsk legislative elections over the weekend, while voters in five other regions picked municipal council members for the first time. The Pensioner’s Party garnered slightly more than 19 percent of the vote in Sunday’s elections, while United Russia received slightly more than 17 percent, according to preliminary results released Monday, Interfax reported. The result was unusual because United Russia, which dominates the State Duma, has managed to muster a majority in more than half of the country’s regional legislatures over the past two years. The Pensioners’ Party is led by State Duma Deputy Valery Gartung, an independent from Chelyabinsk who once belonged to United Russia and helped President Vladimir Putin win the Chelyabinsk vote in 2000 presidential elections. In Tomsk, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party and the “against all” option tied for third place with about 14 percent, while the Communist Party received 9 percent and a joint Yabloko-Union of Right Forces ticket received 8 percent. Meanwhile, five regions — Perm, Sverdlovsk, Leningrad, Saratov and Sakhalin — voted for council members for newly formed municipal districts on Sunday. The elections are part of a self-rule reform that creates a two-tier system of municipal government that should provide a rigid delineation of powers among federal, regional and local authorities. The reform will more than double the number of municipalities by introducing self-rule to tens of thousands villages. The Duma recently delayed the reform from next year until 2009, but many regions had already organized elections. In Perm, voters picked council members for 285 new districts. Ballot counting was continuing Monday, and Perm elections chief Anatoly Lebedev said winners would take their posts only two weeks after results were officially published in local newspapers, Interfax reported. The Perm legislature also confirmed President Vladimir Putin’s appointment of Oleg Chirkunov as governor. Chirkunov, 47, had served as acting governor since March 2004, when former Governor Yury Trutnev was promoted to natural resources minister — apparently as a reward for his efforts to merge Perm with the neighboring Komi-Permyatsky autonomous district. Chirkunov, a former deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s Budget Committee, has yet to be confirmed by the Komi-Permyatsky legislature. In Sverdlovsk, voters picked council members for 21 new municipal districts. Election officials said Monday that a second round would be held to choose district heads in 11 districts after no candidates won more than 50 percent. In the Leningrad region, more than 7,000 candidates ran in 966 districts for 2,275 posts. Only 1,500 candidates were affiliated with political parties, Interfax reported. In Saratov, people voted in 1,082 districts, but elections in five were ruled invalid due to turnout of less than 20 percent. On the island of Sakhalin, council members were picked in 16 districts. In other elections on Sunday: • A second round was held in the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district for 34 district heads. The first round, which covered all 65 districts, was held Oct. 2. • Residents of the deer-herding areas of the Koryaksky autonomous region started voting in a referendum on uniting the region with neighboring Kamchatka. Authorities are sending helicopters with ballot boxes to the areas. • Incumbent Irkutsk Mayor Vladimir Yakubovsky won re-election with about 27 percent of the vote.
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