Politics

00:50, 23.10.2007 | Far East Russia

The second round of the mayoral elections is held in the Primorsky territorial city of Dalnegorsk on Sunday. The director of a mine belonging to the Dalpolymetall enterprise, Grigory Krutikov and businessman Alexander Terebilov qualified for the mayoral runoff. Grigory Krutikov polled 29.5% of the vote in the first round and Alexander Terebilov, who has already qualified for the runoff in 2006 together with killed candidate Dmitry Fotyanov, received 22.8% of the ballot this time.

The first round of the mayoral elections was held in Dalnegorsk on October 14, and its returns were recognized valid despite the fact that several violations were exposed. The prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case over the bribing of voters in favor of candidate Alexander Terebilov. During the election campaign the Dalnegorsk city prosecutor’s office received 31 complaints. Four of them were recognized grounded, 22 were turned down and five complaints were submitted to other agencies. The prosecutor’s office checked each request. Four election legislation violations were exposed in the work of the municipal election committee and local self-government bodies. Ten people were brought to administrative responsibility.
The Dalnegorsk residents cannot elect their mayor since 2004. All previous attempts were abortive over a high percentage of protest voting or the returns were recognized invalid. In 2006 the mayoral elections ended with a tragedy. Candidate from the United Russia Party Dmitry Fotyanov was killed on October 19, three days before the runoff. This murder was high-profile and draw attention of territorial and federal authorities to the situation in Dalnegorsk. The Central Election Commission put under special control the mayoral elections in Dalnegorsk.

Itar-TAAS