18:00, 3 March 2009

Sochi starts electoral campaign of City Mayor

The city of Sochi (Krasnodar Territory) has launched its electoral campaign of the Mayor, towards the election to take place on April 26. The City Electoral Commission (CEC) will stop receiving documents from candidates for the Mayor of Sochi on March 26, as Yuri Rykov, chairman of the Commission has explained.

On March 2, the CEC considered the action plan on preparation and holding the early election of the Mayor of Sochi. Now, the city has 4 territorial electoral commissions and 210 local ones. The UGA.ru portal reports that as of January 1, 2009, Sochi counts 296,150 voters.

So far, the CEC has received no applications. This electoral campaign will be shorter than the previous one; its term has been shortened by one third. The "Vecherni Sochi" newspaper writes that the law on municipal elections in Krasnodar Territory allows doing it.

As of today, Sochi is governed by Anatoly Pakhomov, Vice-Mayor, who was appointed Acting Mayor on January 20 and replaced Dzhambulat Khatuov, who became, in his turn, the First Vice-Governor of the Krasnodar Territory.