Call for protests after Moscow mayor vote 'fraud'

Russia was today facing a new wave of street protests amid claims of vote rigging against Vladimir Putin’s most charismatic foe in the election for Moscow mayor.

Alexei Navalny claimed the results had been skewed to deny him a run-off against pro-Kremlin candidate Sergei Sobyanin. Official returns showed Mr Sobyanin won, with 51.32 per cent, just above the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a second round. Mr Navalny was on 27.27 per cent.

But the lawyer and anti-corruption blogger insisted the results were fraudulent, a claim he is expected to repeat at a Moscow rally tonight. “What we are seeing now are clear falsifications,” he said at his campaign HQ.

“We demand a second round. If that is not done, we will appeal to the citizens and ask them to take to the streets of Moscow. We will not give up a single vote we received.”

His team believes the vote count was swollen by phantom electors backing incumbent mayor Mr Sobyanin, a Siberian apparatchik who was once President Putin’s chief of staff. Several exit polls gave Mr Navalny a higher figure than he finally secured.

But Moscow’s electoral commission said there had been no serious violations and there would be no run-off. Mr Sobyanin denied fraud, claiming he had won “the most honest and open elections in the history of Moscow”.

Mr Navalny, 37, came to prominence when he challenged alleged vote-rigging in parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011 and last year. Despite losing in Moscow, his showing exceeded expectations and may breathe new life into opposition politics in Russia. He contested the poll despite being on bail, after being sentenced to five years in jail for embezzlement, in what he insists was a political trial. He was released pending an appeal.

Denied access to state TV, he used the internet and informal street meetings to campaign for votes. He has stated his ambition to be president and to jail Mr Putin and his entourage, who he labels “swindlers and thieves”.

Political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky said: “This is a victory for Navalny, even if there will be no run-off.” Turnout was 32 per cent. Communist candidate Ivan Melnikov came third on 10.7 per cent.

In the industrial city of Yekaterinburg, an opposition candidate and anti-heroin campaigner, Yevgeny Roizman, beat pro-Putin candidate Yakov Silin.