Saint Petersburg's city duma was established in 1786 as part of Catherine II's reforms on local government.

However, in 2000 the federal legislation changed and the duties were delegated to a separate person to be elected by the regional legislature (not necessarily among its members).

The Governor is elected for five years by Russian citizens who live in St Petersburg permanently.

The one includes "doppelganger candidates",[15] where a person of similar look and surname was put on the same ballot in order to confuse voters.

[15][16] A remarkable case of Boris Vishnevskiy, a candidate of the Yabloko party, who run in the №2 Saint Petersburg circuit with two nearly indistinguishable doppelgängers alongside was widely reported.