PUTIN EYES 4TH TERM, OPPN CRIES FOUL
FORGONE CONCLUSION With little opposition, Putin set to be in power till 2024
MOSOCW/UST-DJEGUTA: Russians voted in a presidential election on Sunday that was expected to give Vladimir Putin an easy victory, but his opponents alleged officials were compelling people to come to the polls so that a low turnout does not tarnish the win.
The Central Election Commission said turnout across Russia was 59.6% at 7 pm in Moscow. The Tass news service reported that the turnout was running ahead of 2012 levels.
Opinion polls give Putin support of around 70%, or nearly 10 times the backing of his nearest challenger. Another term will take him to nearly a quarter century in power — a longevity among Kremlin leaders second only to Josef Stalin.
Many voters credit Putin, a 65-year-old former KGB spy, with standing up for Russia’s interests in what they view as a hostile outside world.
Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region, alleged meddling in the US presidential election, and bombing campaign in Syria have been condemned in the West. But for most people at home, they have only burnished Putin’s reputation as a strong leader.
A row with Britain over allegations the Kremlin used a nerve toxin to poison a Russian double agent in a sleepy English city has not dented Putin’s standing.
“I am confident that the programme I am offering for the country is right,” Putin told reporters on Sunday after voting at a polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
The only real headache for Putin’s campaign was the possibility many voters, including Putin supporters, would not bother to come to the polls because they felt the outcome was already a foregone conclusion.
Putin opponents alleged employers with close ties to the state were ordering staff to go and vote, and send back evidence.
There’s been “widespread fraud” and observers have caught instances of ballot-rigging on camera, according to Open Russia, an opposition organization founded by former jailed billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Official turnout figures in different regions of Russia are being inflated by as much as 18 percentage points, opposition leader Alexey Navalny said on Twitter, citing data compiled by his observers at polling stations. Navalny, who was barred from contesting the election, had called for a boycott of the vote in protest.
There’s also former reality-TV star Ksenia Sobchak, who’s run a campaign critical of Putin while labouring under accusations from Navalny that the Kremlin encouraged her candidacy to add sparkle to the lackluster contest.
The majority of voters see no viable alternative to Putin: he has total dominance of the political scene and state-run television gives lavish coverage of Putin and little airtime to his rivals.
Many Russians believe he has restored stability after the chaos that ensued after the Soviet Union collapsed.