Kohtla-Järve passes no-confidence motions against city government, deputies

On Thursday, the Kohtla-Järve City Council passed a motion of no-confidence against the city government and council chair Tiit Lillemets.
In addition to Liilemets an the Kohtla-Järve city government as a whole, motions of no-confidence were also passed against deputy council chair Maria Merkulova (Progress Kohtla-Järve electoral list), three councilors and committee chairs: Anton Dijev (Center), Deniss Veršinin (Center) and Jaanek Pahka (Restart Kohtla-Järve electoral list).
Of the 25 members of Kohtla-Järve City Council, 13 voted in favor of the motion to censure the city administration and Council Chair Tiit Lillemets, while 11 voted against. The remaining no confidence motions were also each supported by votes from 13 councilors.
Nine of the 25 members of Kohtla-Järve City Council members are suspected of involvement in a recent corruption scandal, along with a number of other city government employees and two deputy mayors.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the criminal proceedings concern a number of offences committed in the Kohtla-Järve and Jõhvi area following the local elections, which took place last fall.
A total of 17 people, including the city council members and officials and local businessman Nikolai Ossipenko are suspected in the criminal case, which involves a range of offences connected to bribery and influencing the awarding of local government contracts to private firms.
13 MEPs from the Restart electoral alliance (3), SDE (5) and Center (5) groups have agreed to form a new coalition in Kohtla-Järve.
A motion had also submitted against mayor Toomas Nael (Ühtne Jõhvi electoral list), however this was only done so by a smaller number of opposition deputies, seven in total,
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Editor: Michael Cole