ZCZC
BFF-31
RUSSIA-POLITICS-VOTE
Putin’s ally re-elected Moscow mayor amid pension protests
MOSCOW, Sept 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close
ally has been overwhelmingly re-elected Moscow’s mayor, election officials
said on Monday, following a poll overshadowed by protests over a pension
reform.
Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the Russian capital since 2010, received 70.02
percent of the vote, according to results released by the Moscow election
commission. Turnout stood at 30.8 percent.
In 2013, Sobyanin barely escaped a second-round run-off after a strong
challenge from protest leader Alexei Navalny, winning 51.4 percent of the
vote, with Putin’s top critic unexpectedly picking up over a quarter of the
ballots.
This time round serious opposition candidates were kept off the ballot
paper in favour of the incumbent.
Ahead of the vote a Moscow court jailed Navalny for 30 days, just a couple
weeks before he planned to stage a rally against a deeply controversial
pension reform on election day.
In a nationwide day of polls, members of the ruling United Russia party
also won in elections for governors and lawmakers in other Russian cities.
The election day was overshadowed by public anger and mass arrests during
nationwide protests against the hugely unpopular pension reform.
Police arrested 1,018 people, mainly in Saint Petersburg and the Urals city
of Ekaterinburg, who were taking part in demonstrations in dozens of Russian
cities, independent monitor OVD-info said.
In Moscow, police opened two criminal probes over violence against
representatives of the authorities, the monitor said.
Government plans to raise the state pension age to 60 for women and 65 for
men has led to a rare outburst of public anger and seen Putin’s approval
ratings take a major hit.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1344 hrs