Moscow City Court Refuses To Scrap Mayoral Election Results

The Moscow City Court has refused to annul the mayoral election results that were contested by Alexei Navalny, an opposition activist and the runner-up in the election, RAPSI learned in the courtroom Friday. One major lawsuit was filed with the Moscow City Court along with 951 minor ones lodged with other courts in Moscow. The lawsuits are based on Navalny's theories of uneven media coverage for the candidates, as well as attempts to sway the vote of Moscow's senior citizens by unlawful means. The mayoral election took place in Moscow on September 8. Navalny received 27.24% of the vote, compared with the 51.37% received by Sergei Sobyanin, a former Kremlin official, according to the city's election commission. Communist Party nominee Ivan Melnikov received 10.69%, and the three remaining candidates all scored in the single digits. Independent election monitor GOLOS, which deployed a network of election observers, placed Sobyanin's result at 49.45%and Navalny's at 28.56%. Navalny claimed earlier on his blog that at least 28,000 ballots, or 2% of the vote, were rigged to give Sobyanin more than 50%, thus ruling out a runoff.