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A maid became mayor of a Russian town after being asked by the mayor for the past four years to run, to meet the minimum number of two candidates required by law, reports the BBC.
For the past four years, Marina Udgodskaya has been dusting and depressed in the offices of the local government building in Povalikhino, a rural Russian city.
Now, the 35-year-old maid puts cleaning supplies aside to move to her boss’s seat after winning local elections earlier this month, in which she ran only to help the mayor win a new term. .
When no one in town signed up to compete against Nikolai Loktev, a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, the mayor persuaded Udgodskaya to run for a “rival” and meet the minimum requirement of two. the candidates had been registered as “rivals” to guarantee the minimum requirement of two candidates.
However, this plan was completely turned upside down, after the maid defeated him with a huge score difference.
“Nikolai Loktev believed that no one would vote for her and he would remain mayor. But the people got tired and went out and elected Marina Udgodskaya,” a member of Povalikhino’s electoral commission told the BBC.
“He was in awe and she was in awe!” Said a local woman. She says she heard Mayor Loktev ask the maid to run against him.
Marina Udgodskaya received a wave of calls after her surprising victory reached the national press. Since then, she has not answered the phone and is trying to avoid the world before being installed in the mayor’s chair later this week.
But in a recent interview, she said she was shocked by her victory and described herself as a “bogus” candidate who “wasn’t ready” for a promotion “so fast.”
“I didn’t think people would actually vote for me. I did absolutely nothing,” Podyom told Telegram.
Even so, he won almost 62% of the vote. His boss took only 34%.
No candidate campaigned before the elections: there were no election panels, brochures or meetings with voters. The locals claim that it doesn’t make sense, when everyone knows each other.
With only 242 inhabitants, Povalikhino is the largest of the 30 villages that Udgodskaya will run.
“We have done everything necessary in this job, there are no problems in the village,” Mayor Loktev told the BBC in one of his last days in office, while still trying to understand how he lost.
“Clearly, people wanted a change,” concluded the 58-year-old former police officer.
Some have suggested that the result was a protest against Loktev’s United Russia party, which has fallen in polls across the country. In Kostroma, where Povalikhino is located, the party won only 32% of the votes for the regional parliament.
In Povalikhino, the village merchant insists that this result was personal: Loktev simply no longer showed any interest in his responsibilities.
“I think she will manage. The whole town will help her. But they still have to learn,” Loktev said.
Even if she wants to resign as mayor, Udgoskaya has nowhere to go: if she rejects this position, the Retirement Party that supports her has said she will have to pay the full amount needed out of pocket to run again.
