Over half of Moscow citizens ready to vote at mayoral elections – poll

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 31, 2013) The majority of Moscow citizens are aware that that early Moscow mayoral elections will be held on September 8 and they are interested in the election campaign, however not all of them intend to vote on the single election day, sociologists said.

The share of Moscow citizens aware of the upcoming mayoral elections in Moscow grew from 86% in June to 92% in July, the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) poll showed.

Currently, 33% (35% in June) of respondents said they definitely intended to participate in the upcoming elections and 22% (25% in June) said they were “likely to participate.” Seven per cent (8% in June) said they would not vote and 4% (5% in June) said they mostly likely would not vote. The rest are still considering it and the share of such respondents grew from 26% to 33%.

According to the FOM information, 56% Moscow citizens are currently ready to vote for acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, these are most often people over 60 years old and seldom young people aged 18-30. At the same time, 66% respondents said they could vote for Sobyanin and 22% said they would not.

Opposition activist Alexei Navalny, nominated by the RPR-PARNAS party, is supported by 6%. Twelve per cent could vote for Navalny and 71% would never vote for him.

The voting ratings of Ivan Melnikov of the Russian Communist Party, Mikhail Degtyaryov of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party, Sergei Mitrokhin of the Yabloko party and Nikolai Levichyov of A Just Russia party are 1-2%, the poll showed. Their vote potential is between 4% and 8%.

The trust rating is headed by Sobyanin (61%) and Navalny (10%), while 20% respondents said that they did not trust Navalny and 11% that they did not trust Sobyanin.

The election campaign interests the majority of respondents: 67% said they would read campaign materials of the candidates and listen to their speeches and 22% of them said they would this regularly.

Respondents aged over 60 showed most interest in the elections campaign (67%). While 28% of Moscow citizens said they had no interest in it, mostly people aged 18-30 (41%).

The FOM held the representative poll of Moscow citizens involving 1,500 people over 18 years old on July 12-23.