In Astrakhan, 100 people attend protest action against abolition of direct election of Mayor

On November 22, the central square of Astrakhan hosted a rally held by city residents in protest against the abolition of the direct elections of the City Mayor.

The protest action was attended by about 100 people, who held in their hands slogans, flags of various political parties, and black balloons that were later released into the air as a symbol of mourning for democracy, the "OTR" TV Channel reports.

"We want to show the authorities that people stand against those decisions, and the people stand against the abolition of the election of the city Mayor. I believe we will be able to prove it to the authorities, since we are being insistently told that nobody needs the election of the city Mayor," the website of the "OTR" TV Channel quotes by Khalit Aitov, the Secretary of the Committee of the Astrakhan regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) as saying.

"The question is not whether I will be the City Mayor or not. The question is whether the Astrakhan residents will have the right to elect the City Mayor," said Oleg Shein, the leader of the Astrakhan branch of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia), when commenting on the protest action in his "Live Journal" blog.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 27, deputies of the Astrakhan City Duma formulated and presented to the regional Duma the amendments to the regional bill on the formation of local self-governments in the region. According to those amendments, the head of the regional centre is to be elected from the deputies. Earlier, the issue has already been discussed in the region, and in April, Oleg Shein, the leader of the local branch of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" Party announced the intention to initiate a regional referendum to preserve the election of the City Mayor and deputies to the City Duma. On June 17, deputies of the Astrakhan City Duma refused to support the initiative proposed by Oleg Shein.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.