The leaders of United Russia submitted their proposals for the post of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region to the President. The candidates are: Chairman of the Government of Sverdlovsk Region Viktor Koksharov, Director of the Government Department of Industry and Infrastructure and member of United Russia's General Council Alexander Misharin, and current Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel.
The new procedure governing the appointment of top officials in the regions of the Russian Federation is being applied for the first time. Amendments to existing federal legislation were adopted by the State Duma in March 2009 at the initiative of President Medvedev, in order to encourage the participation of Russian citizens in choosing regional authorities and increase their responsibility to the electorate.
According to the new rules, the political party that received the greatest number of votes in the last elections to the regional parliament is entitled to propose three candidates for regional governor to the President of Russia. The United Russia party received a majority of seats in the regional parliament in the election of March 2, 2008.
The procedure for submitting nominations and their review begins a hundred days before the expiry of the current governor's term and takes the form of consultations between political parties and the Presidential Executive Office. Candidates are proposed to the President of Russia no later than 90 days before the expiry of the current governor's term. The President then considers these proposals and notifies the party of his decision within 30 days.
If after reviewing the proposed candidates, the President does not support any of them, then after no more than 30 days the party has the right to propose new candidates following consultations with the President. These new proposals will be examined by the President within 14 days from the date of their submission.