MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) – Pro-Kremlin incumbent Sergei Sobyanin was sworn in as Moscow’s mayor on Thursday, following a court ruling earlier in the day rejecting rival candidate Alexei Navalny’s bid to overturn the election result on claims of widespread violations.
More than 70,000 people turned up for inauguration festivities at Moscow’s Poklonnaya Gora memorial park, the Interior Ministry said.
Sobyanin solemnly swore “to honor the Russian Constitution, federal laws and Moscow city laws, perform his duties honestly and in good faith, and work to ensure the prosperity of the city and the well-being of its residents.”
President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremony that “former romanticism, traditional kindheartedness and hospitality are returning to Moscow,” although, he noted, there are still plenty of problems for the city authorities to work on. He also praised Sobyanin as a “hardworking, business-like and honest man.”
Official results put Navalny in second place in Sunday’s vote with 27.2 percent, compared with the 51.37 percent received by Sobyanin. A Communist Party candidate came third with 10.7 percent. The mayoral election was Moscow’s first in a decade.
One of Navalny’s main complaints about the election was home voting, which he says played a “fundamental role” in determining results at the 951 polling stations. Navalny and his supporters allege that home votes are more easily falsified, and that without home votes Sobyanin would have received 49.47 percent of the vote.
If any one candidate receives less than 50 percent in the Moscow mayoral election, a second round of voting to choose between the top two candidates is mandated by Russian electoral law.
In throwing out Navalny’s demand to annul the inauguration, Judge Alexandra Lopatkina said the demand was disproportionate and could violate the legitimate rights of broad sections of the electorate.
The Moscow Electoral Commission dismissed all official complaints of violations reported on the election day and said later that there were no grounds for a recount.
