KRASNOYARSK, June 11 (Itar-Tass) —— After all the 148,000 ballots of voters who participated in the mayoral elections in Krasnoyarsk on Sunday are counted, United Russia's candidate Edkham Akbulatov is declared the absolute winner. According to the data, 106,344 citizens voted for him (69.37 percent).
The second is self-nominee Alexei Podkorytov, who gained 18,435 votes (12.03 percent). The third is A Just Russia' Alexander Koropachinsky with 17,369 votes in his favour (11.33 percent), the city election commission said, after 100 percent of the votes were counted.
The decision to hold early mayoral elections in Krasnoyarsk was taken after former city head Pyotr Pimashkov quitted the post on December 14 last year, when he became a State Duma member. He remained in office as Krasnoyarsk mayor for four terms since December 1996.
United Russia' General Council Secretary Sergei Neverov noted the elections were held in Kasnoyarsk for the first time when all the polling stations were equipped with ballot processing systems and web-cameras. Many observers monitored the vote. They have already stated the vote was transparent.
Akbulatov during a briefing for reporters thanked all who came to the polls. "I want to thank all Krasnoyarsk residents, my supporters and all who came to cast votes on Sunday, for their participation and non-indifference," he said. "I think the difficult stage of the election campaign ends today, and the intensive work stage, no less difficult, starts."
The turnout was a little more than 21 percent, the lowest ever recorded in the city. It is explained not by political passivity, but just the wish to spend the holiday outside the city. With the three days off and the hot 32-degree weather, most of the nearly 722,000 voters preferred to go out of the city rather than to go to the polls.
Nevertheless, the contenders for the post did everything to win the voters' favour. During the first few days after the elections were called, 24 people stated they wished to run for the post and applied to the election commission. Later, most of them quitted. Ten people remained on the list, but it was not final. On June 4, as a result of primaries, three opposition candidates withdrew from the race in favour of the fourth, Alexander Koropachinsky, director-general of a construction company, who represents the Just Russia Party.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission Leonod Ivlev, who was in Krasnoyarsk shortly before the elections, described them as a rehearsal for direct gubernatorial elections.