ASTRAKHAN, July 17 - RAPSI. On Monday, the Kirovsky District Court in Astrakhan dismissed an action to quash the district results at the city mayor elections held on March 4, former mayoral candidate Oleg Shein told RIA Novosti.

United Russia party representative Mikhail Stolyarov won Astrakhan's mayoral elections with 60 percent of the vote on March 6.

Shein, A Just Russia candidate, finished second with slightly less than 30 percent of the votes. He then challenged the election results, saying they were falsified, and went on a 40-day hunger strike with his supporters to protest the elections.

Shein sued the city election committee to invalidate the elections outcome in April.

Two months later the court dismissed the lawsuit and recommended the plaintiff to contest the election results in each of the four district courts. Shein followed this advice.
"Today the Kirovsky District Court fully rejected my lawsuit," Shein said. It was not an unexpected decision; indeed, he expects the same result from the other courts as well.

He is contemplating lodging a complaint with an appellate court and turning to the European Court of Human Rights in September.