Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny today sent a car-load of complaints to court contesting the results of Moscow's mayor elections, as President Vladimir Putin was due to attend the inauguration of his ally as city supremo.
Incumbent mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who barely avoided a run-off in Sunday's closer-than-expected Moscow mayoral polls, will be sworn in during a ceremony attended by hundreds of guests led by Putin on Thursday evening, a Kremlin spokesman said.
The ceremonial swearing-in at one of the capital's landmark parks will take place after the Moscow election commission refused to conduct a partial vote recount demanded by Navalny, Sobyanin's main rival in the election.
Navalny said his team had put together documented evidence that the vote was partially rigged in favour of Sobyanin, who was appointed Moscow mayor in 2010 but had called the elections before his term was due to end.
According to official results, Sobyanin received 51.3 per cent of the vote but Navalny's team insists that the inauguration should be cancelled because, according to its data, the mayor had polled around 49 per cent.
Earlier today, Navalny and his aides had brought some 20 boxes stuffed with what they say is documentary evidence of vote violations to the Moscow city court.
"We believe that the election on the whole should be cancelled because administrative resources have been used," Navalny told reporters, referring to government interference in the poll.
Similar complaints would be filed with district courts, Navalny's team said.
Navalny, who polled a stronger-than-projected 27.2 per cent of the vote, insists that election officials helped the Kremlin ally avoid a second round run-off by allowing irregularities during at-home voting and at polling stations without observers.
The election commission has dismissed the claims and yesterday formally registered Sobyanin Moscow's mayor.
In a meeting with Sobyanin and other newly-elected regional chiefs, Putin praised the elections that took place in Moscow and elsewhere across Russia on Sunday.
"The legitimacy of these polls, their transparency, their accountability were on such a level which we have probably never before had in our country," he said.
Independent observers said however they had registered vote irregularities, although not as serious as those witnessed in previous polls.
Widespread claims of wholesale violations during 2011 parliamentary polls prompted tens of thousands to take to the streets of Moscow to protest against the ruling party United Russia and Putin himself.
