MOSCOW, August 14 (Itar-Tass) - Acting Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin will gain support of over 50% of Muscovites in the upcoming mayoral race on September 8, the head of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM), Valery Fyodorov, told a news conference on Wednesday citing returns of a recent survey.
The telephone survey conducted on August 8-10 showed that 53% of the 1,200 respondents would give their votes for Sergei Sobyanin, another 9% - for opposition leader Alexei Navalny nominated by the Republican Party of Russia-People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), 3% - for Ivan Melnikov, a candidate from the Communist Party, and 2% - for Sergei Mitrokhin from social liberal party Yabloko. Nikolai Levichev from A Just Russia and Mikhail Degtyarev from the Liberal Democratic Party will enlist a one percent support each.
Nineteen percent of those polled found it difficult to answer, for whom they would vote. Another 11% said they would not participate in the upcoming election and 1% promised to spoil their ballot papers.
Judging by the poll returns WCIOM made its own forecast for the election outcome and voter turnout. The pollster forecasts that voter turnout will reach 48% percent and Sobyanin will win the race gaining support of 67.4% of votes. Navalny will come second with 13%, Melnikov will be third with 6.5%. Mitrokhin will get 5.4%, while Levichev and Degtyarev - 3.3% each.