Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg's city duma was established in 1786 as part of Catherine II's reforms on local government.^[1]

In 1798, Paul I abolished the city duma and replaced it with the Ratusha (Rathaus) until the city duma was restored in 1802. The city duma was again abolished in 1918 with its functions devolved to the Petrograd Soviet.^[1]

Initially it was the speaker of the Assembly who served as member of the Federation Council of Russia representing the legislative power body of this federal subject. However, in 2000 the federal legislation changed and the duties were delegated to a separate person to be elected by the regional legislature (not necessarily among its members). From June 13, 2001 until May 18, 2011, Sergey Mironov occupied this position.^{[citation needed]}

According to federal legislation from 2005, the governor of Saint Petersburg (as well as heads of other federal subjects of Russia) was proposed by the President of Russia and approved by the regional legislature. On December 20, 2006, incumbent Valentina Matviyenko was approved as governor.^[2][3][4] In 2012, following the passage of a new federal law,^[5] which restored direct elections of the heads of federal subjects, the city charter was again amended.^[6]

The first three convocations were formed by a single-member district plurality voting system with at least 20% participation required (except for the 1994 elections with their changing participation threshold), two-round for the first and second convocations and single-round for the third one. On March 11, 2007, the fourth elections were held using a party-list proportional representation system with a 7-percent election threshold and no required threshold of participation for the first time according to the new city law accepted by the third convocation of the assembly in 2006^[7] and new federal legislation.

• 1st convocation: March 20–21/October 30/November 20, 1994^[8]
• 2nd convocation: December 6/December 20, 1998
• 3rd convocation: December 8, 2002
• 4th convocation: March 11, 2007
• 5th convocation: December 4, 2011
• 6th convocation: September 18, 2016
• 7th convocation: September 2021 – September 2026^[9]

The Assembly is a permanent body, and the supreme and only governing body in St Petersburg. It consists of fifty seats and is elected for a five-year term. Half of this number run in single-mandate constituencies, while the other half are in a single electoral district, with winners elected in proportion to the number of votes cast. The candidates are nominated by electoral associations.^[9]

The highest executive body of state power in St Petersburg is the government of St Petersburg, headed by the Governor of St Petersburg, who is the region's highest-ranking official. The Governor is elected for five years by Russian citizens who live in St Petersburg permanently.^[9]

As of 2022^[update], the term of office of the incumbent Governor expires in September 2024.^[9]

Controversy

While non-systemic opposition was largely eliminated from the elections, those candidates (mostly of systemic opposition) who were allowed to participate were targeted by various semi-legal intimidation or confusion techniques. The one includes "doppelganger candidates",^[15] where a person of similar look and surname was put on the same ballot in order to confuse voters.^[15][16] A remarkable case of Boris Vishnevskys [ru], a candidate of the Yabloko party, who run in the №2 Saint Petersburg circuit with two nearly indistinguishable doppelgängers alongside was widely reported.^[c] Both have changed their legal names to "Boris Vishnevsky" shortly before the elections, and returned to their original names shortly after it was finished.^[25]

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