The first meeting of the State Council of the Komi Republic was held on September 28 in Syktyvkar. Participants considered appointment of a chairman of the regional parliament. 24 out of 28 people voted for the Managing Director of Syktyvkar Commerce and Technology College Nadezhda Dorofeeva. One person voted against and three have abstained. Prior to that, Director of Syktyvkar Forest Institute Valentina Zhideleva was tipped for a chair of the Speaker.
Before the vote, a member of the Communist Party Oleg Mikhailov said that election of September 13, 2015 does not reflect the real balance of political forces in the region. But the detention of almost all political forces in the Komi Republic, including the head of Komi Vyacheslav Gayzer and former leader of the United Russia party in the region Igor Kovzel, undermined the authority of the United Russia. According to Oleg Mikhailov, nomination from the opposition would be logical. Therefore, the Communist Party proposed the candidacy of Oleg Mikhailov.
A member of the Fair Russia Viktor Polyakhov said that he met with Nadezhda Dorofeeva only yesterday and "confused by lack of experience for such a high post".
Deputy Valery Markov supported Nadezhda Dorofeeva. He said that even though she had no experience, but there were experienced deputies in parliament who would help and advise her.
A member of the Liberal Democratic Party Mikhail Bragin did not understand why the meeting did not choose the leaders of the committees and commissions:
«Advice? With whom then? References – with whom? We are separated from the government, but we move there where we have to agree on someone once again. Are we waiting for a Chief?»
According to Bragin, those state-owned enterprises which were transferred to the "Gayzer's team" should be nationalized.
LDPR leader in parliament suggested all factions to resign in May 2016 and hold new elections to the State Council of Komi in September 2016.
Let us recall, the head of the coordinating council of the United Russia, First Deputy Chairman of Russian State Duma Committee for Education Vladimir Burmatov offered to support her candidature at the party conference in Syktyvkar on September 27. According to him, the party General Council decided to recommend colleagues to vote for parliament speaker Dorofeeva. Burmatov also said that the party General Council has suspended the authority Igor Kovzel, who had been secretary of the department of the United Russia in the Komi Republic. The official reason is the suspension of his membership in the party.
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More on the topic
«7x7» presents infographic of men and women included in the regional parliaments in the Russian and foreign subjects of the Barents Region (2009-2012). Data on the site patchworkbarents.org.
As can be seen from the map of the regions, the largest number of women are included in the parliaments of the subjects of the Scandinavian countries and Finland. The leader on this indicator is Vasterbotten – over half of all seats are occupied by women (56.3%). It is followed by the Norwegian province of Norland (47,2%) and Finmark (42,9%).
In Russia, there are usually a lot of women in the parliaments of the Republic of Karelia and Arkhangelsk. However, the Speaker of the State Council of the Komi Republic was a woman twice in the last six years. The rector of Syktyvkar State University Marina Istikhovskaya was the Speaker of Parliament before Nadezhda Dorofeeva and Igor Kovzel.
"Politeks" cited statistics that the regional political elite of big cities mostly consists of men, and of small towns and rural areas – of women.
Viktor Ivanov, «7x7»
