Rigging claims as Putin heads for landslide win
VLADIMIR Putin was last night celebrating a landslide victory in a Russian presidential election marred by allegations of rigged ballots and voter coercion.
With just over 70 per cent of ballots counted, the country’s Central Election Commission announced that the former KGB officer had won 75.9 per cent of the vote.
There were claims the spy row with the UK had boosted his popularity.
The win secures Mr Putin a further sixyear term, taking him to nearly 25 years in power – second only to Stalin for time spent in the Kremlin.
But critics described the poll, in which Mr Putin is likely to win ten times as many votes as his nearest rival, as a farce.
The Russian president has enjoyed wallto-wall positive coverage on state-run TV channels and in pro-Putin newspapers. His main potential challenger was barred from the contest. Yesterday there were reports of unprecedented pressure from state officials to force the public to vote and give the 65-year-old incumbent a convincing mandate. Footage emerged of apparent ballot box stuffing by supposedly impartial officials. CCTV cameras in several polling stations across Russia showed staff filling in and casting large stashes of ballots.
In one polling station an observer was reportedly assaulted by an official. Cameras at some stations were covered and there was a surge in last-minute voter registration changes designed to boost turnout. One voter called Yevgeny, a 43-year-old mechanic who works for the Moscow city government, said he considered whether it was worth voting but did so because of pressure from his bosses.
‘But the answer was easy … if I want to keep working, I vote,’ he said. He said his employers have not asked for proof of voting but he fears they will.
In Yekaterinburg, a doctor also said she was being coerced to the ballot box. When she had not voted by midday, she said: ‘The chief of my unit called me and said I was the only one who hadn’t voted.’ In Moscow, first-time voters were being given free tickets for concerts. Health authorities were offering free cancer screenings at some polling stations.
Reports said local government officials and state employees had received orders to ensure the turnout was over 60 per cent.
The Kremlin was thought to fear the lack of real competition could mean a slump in turnout. Casting his ballot in Moscow, Mr Putin said he would consider any percentage of votes a success, adding: ‘The programme I propose for the country is the right one.’ His rumoured partner, ex-Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 34, declined to say who she backed, but said: ‘He will surely win.’
The campaign used Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region to burnish the president’s reputation as a strong leader.
A spokesman for his campaign suggested Britain’s reaction to the poisoning of ex- spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury had boosted turnout.
Andrei Kondrashov said: ‘Ten days ago sociologists had believed it would be about 50 to 60 per cent. Now we can see the number is higher than we expected … largely thanks to the UK.’
Results from more than half of precincts showed Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin and ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky trailing behind with about 13 and 6 per cent, respectively.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny dismissed the challengers on the ballot as ‘puppets’ and urged voters to boycott the election, which he called an undemocratic farce. He was barred from the race over a corruption conviction he says was fabricated.
‘Undemocratic farce’