Of the 31 members of the Narva city council, 19 voted for Liimets, two voted against him and 10 council members abstained. Electoral blocs Meie Narva and Elagu Narva did not participate in the vote.

Liimets will hold down the position of Mayor of Narva for two months, until the local government elections in October.

The new mayor has not yet decided if he will run in the local elections. "If I do, will I do so on Reform's list, but we have not put together a list yet. It is also possible to run as an individual candidate, but a mayor has a lot of work and I might not run, at all," Liimets said.

Since he is a member of Reform, he cannot run in Center's list. "When Center made me an offer to be a candidate for mayor, I told them right away that I would not run in their list," the new mayor noted.

Narva city council ousted previous mayor Katri Raik after a vote of confidence on August 16. There were 12 signatures on the vote, most of them from members of the Center Party group. The official reason behind the vote was Raik's lack of cooperation with the city council. 21 people participated in the vote of confidence, five members voted against.

The city council held a vote for Liimets to be mayor that same evening, but he fell one vote short, after which the council confirmed Narva city government finance board director Jelena Golubeva as acting mayor.

Narva city council deputy chairman Tarmo Tammiste (Center) said the council would have had to organize elections either way, since local government elections are not for another two months. "We could not allow a situation, where there could be protests after elections results become clear and I would not be surprised this time if they do happen in Narva. And then there could be this silly situation, where the city is left without a mayor," Tammiste noted.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!