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United Russia to nominate candidate for Astrakhan mayor on primaries results

MOSCOW, November 26, 0:33 /ITAR-TASS/. The United Russia Party will nominate its candidate for Astrakhan mayor on the basis of the primaries’ results, if the pre-term mayoral election is held, Sergei Neverov, the secretary of the party’s General Council, told Itar-Tass on Monday, answering questions of reporters in connection with Mikhail Stolyarov’s dismissal from the mayoral post.

Neverov said the United Russia Party would nominate its candidate on the results of the pre-term voting with the broadest possible participation of the city’s residents. “The party, according to its regulations, will conduct the pre-term voting so that citizens could decide themselves on the mayoral candidature from the United Russia,” Neverov said, adding that it should be a well-known and respected person, taking bearing in the municipal economy. “Therefore it is important that as many residents of Astrakhan as possible participate in the pre-term voting,” he said.

If the pre-term mayoral election is appointed in Astrakhan, is should be held openly, on the basis of competition, said the secretary of the General Council of the United Russia Party.

On November 22, Moscow’s Basmanny Court suspended Stolyalor from the post of Astrakhan’s mayor pending court ruling or the stoppage of criminal proceedings against him on other grounds. Vladimir Zolotokopov, the deputy chairman of the regional elections commission, said that despite Stolyarov’s being suspended, he is still mayor de jure, so no pre-term election will yet be held.

According to investigators, an Astrakhan businessman in October 2013 asked Stolyarov to allocate to him a site of 3,000 square metres in Astrakhan for the construction of an administrative building. Investigators assert that Stolyarov promised to do so, demanding that the businessman produce 10 million roubles and also give him a 25-percent share in the enterprise’s fixed assets by proxy. Stolyarov was detained when receiving money in a restaurant in Astrakhan. Moscow’s Basmanny court placed him in custody in an investigation ward for two months. Stolyarov pleaded not guilty, expressing the readiness to cooperate with the investigation.

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