The legislative assembly of St. Petersburg has endorsed Valentina Matviyenko as city governor for a term of five years, Itar-Tass reports. Forty legislators voted for that decision and three against. There were no abstentions.
Matviyenko’s candidature was presented by the chief of the Russian presidential staff, Sergei Sobyanin.
That was St. Petersburg’s first-ever procedure in which the city legislature endorsed a candidate for governorship proposed by the president.
The idea of terminating Matviyenko’s previous term of ahead of time was proposed by the presidential representative in the Northwestern Federal District, Ilya Klebanov, who persuaded Matviyenko to undergo the re-appointment procedure in December for the sake of maintaining political stability in the city during the March 2007 elections of the city legislature and the State Duma elections in December next year.
Matviyenko on December 6 addressed President Vladimir Putin with a message requesting early termination of her powers and a confirmation of confidence.