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Major losses for pro-Kremlin candidates in Moscow city vote
MOSCOW, Sept 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Pro-Kremlin candidates have suffered
major losses in a Moscow municipal election following an opposition-led
strategic voting campaign, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.
With all the votes counted, candidates supported by the ruling United
Russia party lost out to the opposition in 20 of the city’s 45 voting
districts.
Communist, independent and liberal candidates achieved significant gains
against those allied with United Russia, bringing more political diversity to
the assembly.
The Communists won 13 seats, up from only five previously.
The liberal Yabloko party won three seats, plus an independent candidate
supported by the party won another seat. The left-leaning Just Russia party
also won three seats after having none previously.
Pro-Kremlin deputies, both United Russia candidates and independents
supported by the party, had held 38 of the assembly’s seats after the
previous election in 2014.
No candidates ran under its banner this year as the party is deeply
unpopular.
Nine previous deputies of United Russia retained their seats after running
as independents, but the party’s leader in Moscow Andrei Metelsky lost a re-
election bid.
“We will carry out work on our mistakes,” Metelsky told RIA Novosti news
agency.
Another high-profile loser was Valeriya Kasamara, the deputy head of the
Higher School of Economics, a leading university. She was seen as a pro-
Kremlin candidate and her posters were visible across the city.
One of the university’s students, a Navalny supporter, is currently facing
criminal charges for his popular political video blog after he took part in
protests.
In addition, 13 candidates won who were nominally independent but were
reportedly supported by United Russia.
These included Olympic synchronised swimmer and television sports
commentator Maria Kiselyova and Natalya Metlina, a presenter on Zvezda
defence ministry television channel.
A further three candidates won who held United Russia seats in the
previous parliament but this time represented a pro-Kremlin movement called
My Moscow.
After his allies were banned from the vote, main opposition leader Alexei
Navalny put forward a “Smart Voting” plan urging Muscovites to support those
who had the highest chances of beating pro-Kremlin candidates — many of them
Communists.
Twenty of the candidates on Navalny’s “smart voting” list won, which he
called a “fantastic result” on Twitter.
There was a slightly higher turnout than for previous polls in 2014 at
just over 21 percent.
BSS/AFP/FI/1523 hrs