Elections watchdog agency receives over 3,000 complaints of violations
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has won Russia's presidential election on Sunday.
Mr. Putin has got 62 per cent of the 85 per cent votes counted, the Central Election Commission said. Exit polls conducted by two leading pollsters gave Mr. Putin 58-59 per cent. Mr. Putin needed to win more than 50 per cent to avoid a runoff.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov came second with over 17 per cent of the votes. The other three candidates polled less than 10 per cent each.
The election was marred by reports of large-scale violations. Opposition activists and observers have reported thousands of violations that involved multiple voting, known here as “carousels” — voting without proper documents and non-admission of monitors to polling stations.
The elections watchdog agency Golos said it received more than 3,000 complaints of violations. Website Rosvobory reported 2,700 violations by noon. The CEC said it received reports of a mere 86 violations.
Golos said the number of violations was as high as during the December parliamentary election, when allegations of large-scale fraud in favour of Mr. Putin's party, United Russia, set off mass protests across Russia. In response to complaints of ballot stuffing, authorities installed web cameras at almost all of Russia's 95,000 polling stations. The charges of vote rigging have spurred tens of thousands of volunteers to act as election observers during the presidential poll.
Faced with stricter voting monitoring, authorities resorted to new falsification techniques, said Alexei Navalny, a leader of the new protest movement and Russia's most famous corruption buster.
“There has been a surge in ‘carousel' voting,” Mr. Navalny said. “Thousands of people were bussed to Moscow from other cities, and each of them voted up to 20 times at different polling stations.”
For Mr. Putin, 59, it will be his third term as President. He stepped down four years ago because of a Constitutional limit, promoting his protégé Dmitry Medvedev to succeed him.
Mr. Putin has promised to appoint Mr. Medvedev as Prime Minister after the election.
In a bizarre incident, three activists from Ukraine's women's movement Femen, who last month attacked the Indian embassy in Kyiv, appeared topless at the polling station where Mr. Putin had cast his vote a few minutes earlier. They shouted insults at Mr. Putin and attempted to seize a ballot box before the police dragged them away.
Keywords: Russia Presidential polls, Vladimir Putin
Definitely it is a clean sweep for Mr. Putin and as far as the voilations are concerned then it must be noted that all those who have raised their voices against the imperialist powers of the world they had to face such type of allegations and they are being highlited intentionally to reduce the effect of victory.
There is no discussion regarding the protests aginst the economical policies around the world specilly in the US,UK & Greece where large demonstrations have been done against the government and still going on. No discussion of cracking down the protests.
Heartiest congratulations to Vladimir Putin...
Leaders of his vision and stature, who are ready to rule with an iron
fist and steel heart and thereby bringing peace and progress is what the
world requires at present.
Time to celebrate Russia..(with a glass of Putinka Vodka off course)
Congratulations, Comrade Putin. May you reign for a thousand years!
Hopefully the Russia-China-Iran axis will provide a strong, but peaceful, counter to the morally degenerate West (i.e. the US, Israel and NATO). May Comrade Putin be one of the leading lights in a new, multi-polar World Order.
Congratulations to Vladimir Putin and the all the very best for his 3rd Innings . We wish there will be more Strategic Ties with india. We are so close Friend to Russian .Like Bhramos,Nuclear Power Plant like Koodamkulam.we are waiting for more .....
congratulations to Vladimir Putin...........
Congratulations to Vladimir Putin and the all the very best for his 3rd Innings at Kremlin.Russians are chosen the best leader for there future.Now we can se Resurgent and powerfull Russia under Putin's Leadership.
Putin proved as a leader in his previous tenures. He deserves such a mandate. Rise of Putin will
definitely hyphenate America's policy which is indispensable.
I really wonder where from these journalists get such information and quoting marginial people like Navalny puts 'Hindu' on same line with most of western media which are anitPUtin and completely biased against majority or Russians. i once advise people not to dramatize the opposition movement here. It simply does not exist here. There are many people who are not happy with Putin but changing him now will mean disaster for Russia, it is question of choosing the 'best eveil'. At least under Putin things will not go worse.I expect 'The Hindu' to be more objective and make a deeper analysis into the issues. As for the readers who have posted comments , don't come to conclusions from there, sitting in a India which is 8000 kms from here and most people don't have any idea of what is Russia and what is the people's mentality.
Mr. Putin is able to receive 62% of the votes out of the 85% counter, itself says he won the election by huge margin even if there were 3000 incidents of violations reported. If they were not there, It won't have stopped him from getting 50% votes comfortably. Its a good news for india also since Russia under Putin is always pro-India.
Mr.Putin has always been a great leader who has always inspired even the
most powerful policy makers round the world. Being an Indian I know how
much it is strategically important to have strong tie with the biggest
exporter of arms and ammunition.so we should extend our heartiest
congratulations to Mr.Putin.
Vladmir Putin is back with a bang, Hope he saves Russia from its degradation.
Russia as seen a huge moral uplift, domestic and international policy changeovers after Vladimir Putin took over the reins. Majority to Mr. Putin was expected after December's Parliamentary elections. Both of these reported to have mass violations, perceived fraud in election practices. Although there is no other candidate other than Mr. Putin and his protégé Medvedev for top posts more suitable for the top posts, these violation reports are worrying.
Congratulations to Valaorus Vladimir and the very best for his 3rd Innings@Kremlin. I am sure the "Platinum Age" for Russia has begun and they would be a verys responsible super power.
Sir,
Though violations could have taken place, I believe this would not have
prevented Mr. Putin to attain majority support. Let his new tenure
relieve Russia of all her ills.
Viji
Welcome back Putin in need hours for the world.
The person who should win, is going to win. In my life never seen a such
strong statesman.
I'm in Russia since 1990. Read lot of about his unpopularity in NON-Russian
papers which were too far from reality. Hoping media (especially western
& who copy-paste western news) would be careful before giving wrong
information to public. One could watch all process online yesterday. Can
west & India organize such open elections?
Congrats Mr Vladimir Putin and the Russian people.
Putin was the best that Yeltsin did to the world.
Putin's Russia would thwart imperialist ambitions and make good use of Russian petro
roubles for world peace.
Welcome back Putin in need hours for the world.
The person, who should win, is going to win. In my life never seen a
such strong statesman.
I'm Russia since 1990. Read lot of about his unpopularity in NON-
Russian papers which were too far from reality. Hoping media
(especially western & who copy-paste western news) would be careful
before giving wrong information to public.
One could watch all process online yesterday. Can west & India
organize such open elections?
Putin himself admitted that Russians from Moscow are less likely to love
russia than other countries..
The statement in itself says lot of things. but no need to elaborate
on this..
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