On Friday, June 7, Moscow City Hall set snap mayoral election to take place on September 8, recently retired mayor Sergey Sobyanin is the first candidate.

      In a vote held Thursday night, 27 members of Moscow City Hall backed the proposed date, and only two voted against it. Communist Party representative Andrei Klychkov was one of those who voted against, saying he views setting election dates as a mere formality and opposes snap elections in principle.

      The City Hall deputees couldn't set the election on another day, as, according the federal legislation, all elections in Russia, not including presidential and parliamentary elections, must take place at the United Election Day (the second Sunday of a month). After an official election date publication all the candidates will have 30 days to register.

      Outgoing Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, appointed in 2010 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, announced on Tuesday that he would resign. The next day, President Putin accepted his resignation and appointed him acting mayor.

      The polls will be the Russian capital’s first direct elections for mayor in a decade. The latest politician to win mayoral elections in Moscow was Yury Luzhkov in 2003.

      Sobyanin quickly confirmed he will stand for election as a nominant of himself. The politician explains his resignation and following participation in election by his intention to be directly elected by Moscow citizens, as well as mayors in all other Russian cities.

      Over dozen of politicians also plan to join the election campaign, among them billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov and prominent opposition activist Alexei Navalny.