A Communist challenger won an upset victory for governor in the Leningrad region, while a reformist incumbent was re-elected in the Rostov region of southern Russia, preliminary returns showed Monday.
The closely watched races were among the first of 52 gubernatorial elections to be held throughout Russia in the next four months.The winners automatically become members of the Federal Council, the upper house of parliament, and the Yeltsin administration is working hard to elect as many supporters as possible.
In the Leningrad region - which surrounds the more liberal city of St. Petersburg - incumbent Alexander Belyakov had been expected to win easily.
But he won only 31 percent of the vote compared with 53 percent for Vadim Gustov, the Communist-backed challenger, in Sunday's voting.