Independent candidate wins mayoral election in Moscow region

Self-nominated candidate Andrei Voityuk has won the mayoral election in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region, the chairman of the regional election commission said on Monday. According to Irek Vildanov, Voityuk, commander of Ministry for Emergency Situations’ Airlift and Rescue Center, got 36.77 percent of the vote. Igor Novikov supported by Civic Platform of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov came second with 27.66 percent of the vote. Communist Alexander Anikanov polled 25.04 percent, coming third. All in all 30,929 people or 38.5 percent of eligible voters took part in the election. “On the whole, the mayoral election in Zhukovsky proceeded legally and openly,” Vildanov stressed. He confirmed that there had been some complaints on the voting day. “They were of different nature, both objective and not objective,” he noted. He said two voters managed to cast their ballots twice. “The results of that voting were invalidated,” he conformed. “But there were a lot of unjustified, unconfirmed complaints,” he added. According to him, “the hype around the election of Zhukovsky mayor ahead of the vote, claims about plotted falsifications turned out to be a soap bubble,” he stressed. Vildanov said that contrary to media reports, there had been no removals of observers from polling stations. “Only two observers were expelled on the election day. Besides, one of them was returned by 8 pm, when work began to sum up the results of the voting,” the chairman of the Moscow region election commission said.