St Petersburg, 7 October 1996 (RFE/RL) -- Preliminary results in the Kaliningrad Region's weekend gubernatorial election show incumbent governor Yury Matochkin leading with 31 percent.
Matochkin is supported by the pro-government party Our Home Is Russia, Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko and Alexander Lebed's Truth and Order. He will face a run-off in two weeks against either Leonid Gorbenko, the head of the Kaliningrad sea fishing port; or Yury Semyonov, the deputy chairman of the regional Duma. Semyonov is being backed by Gennady Zyuganov's Communist Party.
Gorbenko and Semyonov each received about 22 percent of the vote. Final results are expected tomorrow.
The election is one of 52 gubernatorial elections in federation regions that still have appointed governors. And it is the second election to be held in the northwest region in as many weeks. Last Sunday in Leningrad Oblast the Kremlin-supported incumbent, Alexander Belyakovz, was defeated by Vadim Gustov, a leftist who was supported by the Communists.
In the Pskov region, reformist incumbent governor Vladislav Tumanov faces voters October 20. The Murmansk and Arkangelsk regions choose their chief executive November 17 and December 15, respectively.