Acting St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov submitted the documents for taking part in the upcoming gubernatorial election in the city to the election commission on Saturday, election commission member Oleg Zatsepa said.
"The first candidate submitted documents for self-nomination, the candidate is considered to have been nominated. This is Acting St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov," he told reporters.
Beglov earlier said he planned to take part in the election as a self-nominated candidate. In that case, to be registered as a candidate, he needs to collect 10% of municipal legislators’ signatures in his support and 2% of the signatures of voters registered in St. Petersburg, that is, more than 76,000 signatures.
Beglov was appointed Acting Governor of St. Petersburg on October 3, 2018, after the resignation of Georgy Poltavchenko. Prior to that, he served as deputy presidential chief of staff in 2008-2012, Special Presidential Envoy in Russia’s Central Federal District in 2012-2017 and Special Presidential Envoy in the Northwestern Federal District in 2017-2018.
The St. Petersburg gubernatorial election will be held on a single voting day, September 8, 2019.