Browse > Home / Watch Russia / Putins Party - Russian Election Marred By Allegations of Fraud and Coercion

Putins Party - Russian Election Marred By Allegations of Fraud and Coercion

November 30, 2007

Though more than a dozen parties are on the ballot for Russia’s parliamentary election Sunday, one would hardly know it. The pro-Kremlin United Russia (UR) party, whose standing has jumped more than 25 percent since President Vladimir Putin announced he would head its candidate list last month, could fairly win up to two-thirds of votes for the 450-seat State Duma, according to most polls.

But in what some experts say may be the least democratic election since the USSR collapsed, boycotted by Europe’s election-monitoring body, the campaign has been marred by complaints from opposition parties of official interference, seizure of campaign literature, the exclusion of some candidates from the ballot, and the sidelining of independent Russian poll observers.

Over the past week, allegations have also surfaced, notably in an investigative report by the English-language Moscow Times, that voter coercion and outright fraud are being deployed to loft UR’s vote to even greater-than-expected heights.

“On a scale of 1 to 100, the level of democracy in this campaign is zero,” says Lilia Shibanova, head of Golos, Russia’s only nationwide network of independent election monitors. “The laws are being systematically violated. Officials at all levels are involved in agitation on behalf of a single party. There is direct pressure on citizens [to vote a particular way], especially at the municipal level.”

Read Article

Share This

If this is your first time visiting Bible Prophecy In The News, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Written by admin · Filed Under Watch Russia 

Comments

Got something to say?





Close
E-mail It