Matviyenko elected municipal deputy in St Petersburg (update)

ST. PETERSBURG, August 22 (Itar-Tass) - St. Petersburg Governor
Valentina Matviyenko has been elected a municipal deputy of the Petrovskiy
district. According to preliminary vote count, she has scored 95.61
percent of the votes, Dmitry Krasnyanskiy, the deputy head of the St.
Petersburg electoral committee, told Itar-Tass.
He said that the city electoral committee had received no complaints
of violations during the vote. The turnout was 36.54 percent, a record
figure for St. Petersburg. Krasnyanskiy clarified that ordinary turnout at
municipal elections is about 10 percent.
Vote count continues in the Krasnaya Rechka municipal district. The
turnout there was about 30%. The final results will become known at night
or on Monday morning.
Matviyenko's election as a municipal deputy will allow her to become a
member of the Federation Council. Earlier, the Federation Council members
have promised to make Matvyienko the speaker of the upper chamber of the
Russian Federal Assembly.
Matviyenko told a briefing held shortly after preliminary vote count
that she would decide on Monday the mandate of what municipal district -
Petrovskiy or Krasnaya Rechka - she's going to hold because law forbids
her to represent two municipal districts.
Matviyenko said she would step down as the governor of St. Petersburg
as soon as the municipal elections' official results are announced. She
added she would write a letter to the president asking him to relieve her
of her duties of governor before her term officially expires.