Sochi Report -- Pro-Kremlin Candidate Elected Mayor

The new Sochi mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, will have a lot to say on how government funds are allocated for Sochi 2014. (Sochi 2014)Anatoly Pakhomov sweeps to victory in the mayoral election in Sochi, the 2014 Olympic city. Over the next five years, he will wield considerable control over how government money is spent on venues and infrastructure to prepare the Black Sea resort for the Games.

Sochi's acting mayor collected nearly 77 percent of the votes in the election Sunday. Former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov came a distant second with 13.6 percent and Communist Party candidate Yury Dzaganiya trailed in third with 6.7 percent.

Six candidates were on the ballot for the election but the result never seemed in doubt following the Russian government's backing of United Russia candidate Pakhomov and reportedly successful attempts at limiting exposure of his rivals.

“Pakhomov won and will be mayor of the city,” city election commission head Yury Rykov told reporters, after more than 90 percent of the ballots had been counted from Sunday's vote. Turnout reached around 40 percent of Sochi's 290,000 electorate.

The official result has yet to be declared and Pakhomov has not so far issued public comment.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic organizing committee led by Dmitry Chernyshenko is expected to issue its own official comment in the coming days.

As the results came in Sunday, opposition Solidarity party candidate Nemtsov slammed the election as flawed, claiming there were discrepancies between turnout figures and number of ballots. Nemtsov and Dzaganiya also accused the Russian government of bribery and voter harassment. They have vowed to contest the results in court.

On Monday, former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov also criticized the way the elections were organized.

In quotes carried by Interfax, he said the polls were held “without media coverage, without the slightest hint of the candidates' enjoying an even playing field and without normal monitoring, but with shameless brainwashing campaigns and mass falsifications.”

But the Election Commission insisted there were no serious violations during the April 26 vote.

The build-up to the election was marred by allegations of dirty tricks with Pakhomov's opponents accusing the Russian government of blocking local media outlets from covering their campaigns and staging smear campaigns against them.

The new mayor will play a major role in the Black Sea resort's preparations for the Olympics, World-famous conductor Valery Gergiev is the latest addition to Sochi's ambassador program (Sochi 2014)the first to be held in Russia.

Pakhomov is expected to provide input into preparations in a role on the Sochi 2014 Supervisory Board, whose members include Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister for the Olympics Dmitry Kozak and Viktor Kolodyazhny, president of Olympstroy, the state corporation in charge of constructing the Olympic venues.

The mayor's election came a day after Sochi 2014 unveiled its latest ambassador, Valery Gergiev, the world-famous conductor, general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre.

“I think that everybody who can make a contribution to the Sochi 2014 Games should do so, strongly and unsparingly,” he said in a statement.

“We are not constructors nor designers, but we can work alongside the organizers of the Games to contribute to the reputation of Sochi 2014. I’m confident we will do so successfully.”

With reporting from Mark Bisson.

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