Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg

Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg Законода́тельное собра́ние Санкт-Петербу́рга Zakonodatel'noe Sobraniye Sankt-Peterburga
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Chairman of the Legislative Assembly	Vyacheslav Makarov, United Russia Since 14 December 2011
Structure
Seats	50
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Political groups	United Russia (20)      A Just Russia (12)      Communist Party (7)      Yabloko (6)      LDPR (5)
Elections
Voting system	Mixed-member proportional representation
Last election	14 December 2011
Meeting place
Legislative Assembly Building Saint Petersburg, St. Isaac Square 6, Mariinsky Palace
Website
http://www.assembly.spb.ru/

The Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg (Russian: Законода́тельное собра́ние Санкт-Петербу́рга, ЗакС) is the legislative power body of Saint Petersburg, a federal subject of Russia, which has existed since 1994 and succeeded the Leningrad Council of People Deputies (Lensovet). It is located in a historic building, Mariinsky Palace. Its powers and duties are defined in the Charter of Saint Petersburg.

According to the new federal legislation, since 2005 the governor of Saint Petersburg (as well as heads of other federal subjects of Russia) is proposed by the President of Russia and approved by the regional legislature. On December 20, 2006, incumbent Valentina Matviyenko was approved governor with forty votes in favor and three votes against (Mikhail Amosov, Natalya Yevdokimova, and Sergey Gulyayev of the Democratic faction representing Yabloko [1][2][3]).

Election

The Assembly consists of fifty seats and is elected for a five-year term. The first three convocations were formed by a single-member district plurality voting system with at least 20% participation required (except for the 1994 elections with their changing participation threshold), two-round for the first and second convocations and single-round for the third one. On March 11, 2007, the fourth elections were held using a party-list proportional representation system with a 7-percent election threshold and no required threshold of participation for the first time according to the new city law accepted by the third convocation of the assembly in 2006 [4] and new federal legislation.

Elections:

• 1st convocation: March 20–21/October 30/November 20, 1994 [5]
• 2nd convocation: December 6/December 20, 1998
• 3rd convocation: December 8, 2002
• 4th convocation: March 11, 2007.
• 5th convocation: December 4, 2011.

Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg

	Name	Period	Notes
1st convocation	Yury Kravtsov	January 5, 1995–April 2, 1998,	Dismissed ahead of schedule
1st convocation	Sergey Mironov	April 2, 1998–1999	Acting
2nd convocation	Viktor Novosyolov	1999	Acting, assassinated on October 20, 1999
2nd convoation	Sergey Tarasov	June 7, 2000–January 15, 2003
3rd and 4th convocations	Vadim Tyulpanov	January 15, 2003-December 13, 2011
5th convocations	Vyacheslav Makarov	December 14, 2011-Incumbent

Representative to the Federation Council of Russia

Initially it was the speaker of the Assembly who served as member of the Federation Council of Russia representing the legislative power body of this federal subject. However, in 2000 the federal legislation changed and the duties were delegated to a separate person to be elected by the regional legislature (not necessarily among its members). Since June 13, 2001, Sergey Mironov has occupied this position until 18 May 2011.

2011 Elections

Elections to the 2011 legislative assembly were held in St. Petersburg at the same time as the 2011 Duma elections (4 December) and like these provoked accusations of fraud. In the event the 50 seats were distributed as follows

United Russia 20; A Just Russia 12; Communist Party 7; Yabloko 6; Liberal Democratic Party (Zhironovsky) 5.

St.Petersburg therefore was ahead in the national swing against Putin’s ‘party of power’ which had been defined by one of the opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny, as ‘the party of crooks and thieves’.

In the weeks following the elections sanctioned and unsanctioned popular protests were held in St. Petersburg against the Duma elections and those for the Legislative Assembly. The opposition called for the annulment of the elections on the grounds of widespread fraud and called for elected candidates to reject their mandates.

Members

• List of deputies by district and convocation

External links

• Official website of the Legislative Assembly (Russian)