Moscow votes for Mayor

[BobFeltham]

MOSCOW (AP) — Two exit polls in Moscow's mayoral election are predicting a stronger showing than expected for opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The exit polls by pollsters FOM and VTsIOM, which are both seen as favoring Kremlin candidates, put the Kremlin-backed incumbent in the lead with about 53 percent.

But FOM predicts 29 percent for Navalny, while VTsIOM shows him even higher, at 32 percent.

Sunday's mayoral election is a potentially pivotal contest that has energized the small opposition in ways that could pose a risk to the Kremlin in the days and years ahead.
''Saying Putin's candidate will win handily could be the understatement of the year.''

[mendeleyev]

First time in a decade that Muscovite's have been allowed to cast a vote for mayor. As Moscow is a federal city, the position of mayor is the same of that of a governor of a region. The mayor of Moscow is the 3rd ranking political position in Russia, after the president and prime minister. So how were the polls today?

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/moscow-voters-explain-their-choices/485711.html

[mendeleyev]

Mendeleyev Journal:

With over 1,000 polling stations counted, Moscow's TV Rain has projected the voting according to data in-hand by the Election Commission.



State-funded VTsIOM show exit polls with 53% for current mayor Sobyanin but with main challenger Alexei Navanly running a much stronger race that government polls had indicated with 32 percent of votes.

Itar-Tass published an exit poll giving Mayor Sobyanin 52 percent and challenger Navalny with a strong 29 percent.
However the top challenger in the race, Alexei Navalny, has asked the government for a second round and to delay declaring a winner until the run-off is completed.

Polling stations in Moscow are very modern with electronic ballot counting and here is a view of one of those stations:

[lordtiberius]

And these elections are honest?  can the FSB promise us that it is not spying on its citizens?

[mendeleyev]

And these elections are honest? 

I don't know but doubt it as the head of Golos election monitoring organization had to leave the country in a big hurry.

Navalny's showing is an embarrassment to the Kremlin so if they tampered, they didn't do enough.

can the FSB promise us that it is not spying on its citizens?

Unlike the NSA, DEA and IRS, the FSB has never claimed not to be spying on citizens. As Americans have discovered, lying about government activities seems to be the norm in the USA.

If they're smart they'll keep Edward Snowden away from working in such areas. 

[lordtiberius]

in America elections are stolen all the time.  Norm Coleman, Dick Nixon and I would say Mit Romney had their elections stolen.  But how does Norm Coleman's 46% make Obama or Al Franken look bad? 

[mendeleyev]

But how does Norm Coleman's 46% make Obama or Al Franken look bad? 

Huh?

Who is Norm Coleman, and what does he or Al FranklyStupid Frankenstein have to do with the Moscow mayoral race?

[lordtiberius]

heres a better question why ahould we care?  makes no difference who is in power, Ruasia aill always act like a spoiled child whining when not tag.  Better to back the devil you know . . . and they are all devils - they're Russians.

[mendeleyev]

RT is reporting that with all votes counted, Acting Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin has won the mayoral election in the Russian capital with 51.37 percent of the ballot. He beat opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, who is placed second with 27.24 percent.

Voting concluded in the Russian capital at 8pm MSK (14:00 GMT), with observers reporting no serious violations at polling stations. In order to win the election in one round, a candidate needed more than 50 percent of the votes. The turnout, which according to the Moscow election commission was about 32 percent of Muscovites, does not affect the results.

http://rt.com/news/mayoral-election-sobyanin-navalny-574/


(Mendeleyev note: We should remember that RT is a official news arm of the Russian government and therefore will reflect in most cases the Kremlin point of view.)

[Faux Pas]

RT is reporting that with all votes counted, Acting Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin has won the mayoral election in the Russian capital with 51.37 percent of the ballot. He beat opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, who is placed second with 27.24 percent.

Voting concluded in the Russian capital at 8pm MSK (14:00 GMT), with observers reporting no serious violations at polling stations. In order to win the election in one round, a candidate needed more than 50 percent of the votes. The turnout, which according to the Moscow election commission was about 32 percent of Muscovites, does not affect the results.

http://rt.com/news/mayoral-election-sobyanin-navalny-574/



(Mendeleyev note: We should remember that RT is a official news arm of the Russian government and therefore will reflect in most cases the Kremlin point of view.)

Wasn't that margin pretty close to what the polls suggested? I don't believe polls are that accurate in most instance

[mendeleyev]

I just got thru looking over copies of documents made with a cell phone camera by an observer representing the "Apple" party. He accompanied mobile voting units where pensioners had requested that a ballot be brought to their address. Of 40 addresses to which they responded, 22 of the persons were actually living at that address--the rest had died, sold their apartments and moved, and several were now in nursing facilities.

According to this gentleman, relatives were asked how would your relative have voted if alive, if they lived here, etc, and those votes marked and counted. Two persons were so elderly that their answers were incoherent and they were marked as invalid ballots.

At one apartment no one was home and the observer says that they met a young man going up the stairs and he was asked if he knew anyone from the apartment. He didn't, but the mobile team asked who was his candidate and they marked the ballot as if the absent resident had voted.

They returned to the polling station and submitted the 40 person list. He claims that later the final vote entered for that mobile team was Sobyanin 40, Navalny 1.

I can't say that ever situation was this allegedly corrupt, but the low turnout of less than 40% of voters is a clear sign that the voting populace doesn't think their vote matters and they just seem to expect rigged elections.