Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin casts his vote at a polling station in Moscow yesterday. Right: Alexei Navalny and his daughter Dasha cast his individual ballot at a polling station in Moscow yesterday.

AFP/Moscow


The pro-Kremlin mayor of Moscow was set to win elections in the Russian capital after beating off a stronger than expected challenge yesterday from a top critic of President Vladimir Putin, exit polls said.
Sergei Sobyanin, a leading ally of Putin, would win the elections in the first round with over half the vote, with anti-Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny picking up around a third of the votes, two Kremlin-linked polling agencies said.
But Navalny’s campaign headquarters immediately cast doubt on the exit polls and said he had managed to force a second round, raising the prospect of tense days ahead if the exit polls are confirmed by the official results.
The candidacy of anti-corruption crusader and protest leader Navalny has made the race the first genuinely competitive Russian election since the heady early post-Soviet years.
The vote was seen as a crucial test of the protest mood in the city which was shaken by huge demonstrations against Putin’s decade-long rule in the winter of 2011-2012.
Sobyanin was due to retain the post of mayor in the first round with 52.5% of the vote while Navalny is due to get 29.1%, the Kremlin-connected FOM polling group said after polls closed at 1600 GMT.
A second exit poll by the VTsIOM, another Kremlin-linked polling agency, gave a similar projection, putting Sobyanin on 53% and Navalny on 32%.
Communist candidate Ivan Melnikov was predicted to come third.
Turnout stood at 26.5% as of 1400 GMT, the Moscow election commission said, an unusually slack figure compared to recent high-profile polls.
Navalny’s campaign immediately contested the findings, saying its polls showed Sobyanin had won only 46%, meaning their candidate had forced a second round with 35.6% of the vote.
The result predicted by the polls is far superior to that projected by opinion polls in the run-up to the vote which projected that Navalny would win around 20%.
Addressing cheering supporters at his election headquarters, Navalny accused Putin and Sobyanin of concocting a figure that suited them.
“Right now Sobyanin and his main supporter Vladimir Putin are deciding whether to have a relatively honest election and to have a second round, or not,” he said.
Putin has made no secret of his support for his former Kremlin chief of staff Sobyanin.
Moscow gave Putin a relatively low 46.95% of the vote in the 2012 presidential election, well below the nationwide average.
Navalny, 37, has threatened protests if officials rig the vote and thousands of supporters are due to hold a meeting on Monday evening in a central Moscow square to decide their strategy.
The Moscow election was part of a nationwide day of local polls, with Kremlin-backed establishment figures also being challenged in key cities like the main Urals centre of Yekaterinburg.
Navalny, who shot to prominence during the anti-Putin rallies, has earned comparisons to a young Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-Soviet president, for his exuberant energy, good looks and promise of change.
“He embodies the fight against corruption, honesty, protest against the regime,” said Ivan Volkov, 28, after casting his ballot.
Many said they were voting for Sobyanin because he had done a lot for Moscow since his appointment to the post in 2010.
“With his arrival Moscow has become better,” said Yevgenia Zatsepina, 78. “He is someone who keeps his promises. He’s business-like and kind.”
Throughout the campaign the buttoned-up Kremlin functionary avoided overt political rhetoric and shunned television debates, instead focusing on sprucing up the capital of 12mn.
By contrast, Navalny made headlines with a Western-style political campaign mobilising the support of thousands of volunteers and securing more than 100mn roubles ($3mn) in donations.
In July, Navalny was sentenced to five years in a penal colony on fraud charges that he says were trumped up and arrested in court.
A day later he was suddenly released pending his appeal, in an unprecedented move observers say showed the Kremlin did not know how to handle him.

Putin says there is ‘no need for politician mayor’ in Moscow


Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said Moscow did not need a politician for a mayor, as his fierce critic Alexei Navalny faced off against a Kremlin incumbent in hotly-contested mayoral polls.
“Such big cities do not so much need to be run by politicians,” Putin said after casting his vote in Moscow, in an apparent dig at anti-Kremlin protest leader Navalny.
“There is a need for business-like, concrete, I would even say depoliticised people, technocrats who know how to work, know what to do and how to do it and take responsibility,” Putin said.
In comments released by the Kremlin, Putin said he was “certain” his candidate would win.
The Russian leader is scheduled to attend the mayoral inauguration this week, according to a Kremlin source.
Ahead of the poll Putin profusely praised the current mayor in a television interview. “He speaks less and does more. I love such people.”