AlQa'dah 2, 1434, Sep 8, 2013, SPA -- Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobvanin won Sunday's mayoral election, but it wasn't the landslide some political analysts expected, news agencies cited exit polls as indicating. A poll by the Public Opinion Foundation showed Sobvanin earned 52.5 percent of the vote over opposition leader Alexei Navalny's 29.1 percent, though VTsIOM, a state-run pollster, said Navalny drew 32 percent. Ivan Melnikov, a Communist Party candidate, came in third with 8 percent, the Public Opinion Foundation said. About 50 percent of the city's voters had been expected to turn out for Sunday's vote, but the first mayoral election turnout in a decade had a low turnout, RIA Novosti reported. The final tally of voters was not reported. Political observers expected Sunday's election to provide a clue to Russian President Vladimir Putin's popularity. Sobvanin is an ally of Putin and had been expected to win easily. Navalny had an unexpectedly strong turnout, RIA Novosti said.
