vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #611 / Special reports / Reading article...

Two months before mayoral elections in Vladivostok, six people have announced their intention to compete for the key post of the city with two of the names being Cherevkov and Nikolayeva.

As of Thursday, two months prior to the May 18 mayoral elections in Vladivostok, the city’s election commission has six candidates registered for the race. Among them Vladimir Gilgenberg, owner of the newspaper Dalyokaya Okraina, who is a former aide to Viktor Cherepkov, a flamboyant mayor of Vladivostok from 1993-1995, widely supported by pensioners but hated by state employees.

Viktor Cherepkov himself so far has not registered for the mayoral elections but is expected to participate in the race. However, a man bearing a close resemblance in name to Viktor Cherepkov is Igor Cherevkov, who has recently appeared on the list of candidates. Cherevkov is a registered employee of the firm Ratoborets-Plus.

Experts say that people whose names have close resemblance to the names of publicly recognized figures may take up to 1-2 percent of the votes during the elections due to accidental confusion.

Another candidate - Svetlana Nikolayeva, director of Dana Company, has the surname coinciding with the name of the former mayor of Vladivostok Vladimir Nikolyaev. Nikolayev who has undergone court hearings and whose property is currently under arrest, can not participate in the elections. It is expected that his sister, Viktoria Nikolayeva, a Primorye Duma Deputy may participate in the race. In this case the voters should be careful with the first names of the two Nikolayevas.

Besides Gilgenberg, Cherevkov and Nikolayeva, three other people expressed their intention to fight for the office of mayor of Vladivostok. They are Roman Salarev, a 22-year-old doctor working for the city’s ambulance service, Sergei Zimin, a manager and Irina Alyoshina, a candidate of the Yabloko party in Vladivostok.

The United Russia party may suggest the candidates of Igor Pushkaryov or Vasily Usoltsev but the decision will be known after the party’s meeting this week.