DHAKA: The Communist Party won a surprise victory against president Vladimir Putin’s ruling party in a mayoral race in Russia’s third largest city of Novosibirsk.

Election officials said on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

Communist lawmaker Anatoly Lokot won 43.75 percent of the vote against the acting mayor Vladimir Znatkov from the ruling United Russia party, who took 39.57 percent, the Siberian city’s electoral commission said.

‘We have created a unique situation in Russia where a united opposition managed to claim victory over United Russia,’ Lokot was quoted as saying on the Communist Party website.

Lokot won after another opposition candidate, Ilya Ponomaryov, from the left-leaning A Just Russia party, quit the race and told his supporters to back Lokot as the single opposition candidate.

BDST: 1420 HRS, APR 07, 2014