All news

Zheleznyak elected State Duma vice-speaker instead of Morozov

The candidacy of Zheleznyak was put up for voting in the lower house as a result of the first rating intra-factional voting on June 5
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, June 8 (Itar-Tass) — Sergei Zheleznyak elected new vice-speaker of the State Duma from the United Russia faction. This decision was taken at a meeting of the lower house of Russian parliament by a majority of votes on Friday.

He replaced one of the State Duma veterans Oleg Morozov, who dropped his deputy mandate after he was appointed as the head of the Russian Presidential Directorate on Domestic Policy. The candidacy of Zheleznyak, who occupied the post of the deputy chairman of the State Duma Culture Committee before, was put up for voting in the lower house as a result of the first rating intra-factional voting on June 5. This step became possible “as a result of amendments in the United Russia charter that were introduced at the latest party congress,” the head of an intra-factional group Vyacheslav Timchenko said before.

The nomination and elections of the candidates passed in three rounds. At the first round the candidates were nominated in an open vote from each of four intra-factional groups in the United Russia Party, and the self-nomination was also possible. From one to three candidates were nominated from four intra-factional groups.

The second stage envisaged a rating secret vote at a meeting of the faction. For the victory at this stage the candidate was to gain 50% of votes plus one vote, otherwise, another round was to take place between three candidates, who polled the highest number of votes in the faction. On June 5, United Russia had to have three rounds of voting, because neither first nor second rounds did not allow the candidate to gain more than 50% of votes. Sergei Zheleznyak emerged as the winner with 119 votes from 195 votes.