Putin puts on pressure to assure big win in election
YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA» Vladimir Putin’s victory in Russia’s presidential election Sunday isn’t in doubt. The only real question is whether voters will turn out in big enough numbers to hand him a convincing mandate for his fourth term — and many Russian workers are facing intense pressure to do so.
Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg, said in a recent video blog that local officials and state employees have all received orders “from higher up” to make sure that the presidential vote turnout is over 60 percent.
“They are using everything: schools, kindergartens, hospitals — the battle for the turnout is unprecedented,” said Roizman, one of the rare opposition politicians to hold a significant elected office.
A doctor at one of the city’s hospitals told The Associated Press how one kind of pressure works.
The doctor, who gave her name only as Yekaterina because of fears about repercussions, said she and her co-workers were told to fill out forms detailing not only where they would cast their ballots, but giving the names and details of two “allies” whom they promise to persuade to go vote.
“It’s not something you can argue about,” she said at a cafe Saturday. “People were indignant at first, said ‘They’re violating our rights’ ... but what can you do?”
Yekaterina said she isn’t sure what she’ll do with her ballot, musing that “maybe I’ll just write ‘Putin is a moron.’ ” But she clearly understands that not showing up at the polling place Sunday will not only endanger her job but will reflect badly on her boss, whom she likes.
The Russian doctor said she wouldn’t go to vote if she wasn’t forced to.
“What’s the point? We already know the outcome. This is just a circus show,” she said.
The eight presidential candidates were barred from campaigning Saturday, but the message to voters was clear from billboards celebrating Russian greatness — a big theme of Putin’s leadership — and Kremlin-friendly media coverage.
Putin urged Russians on Friday to “use their right to choose the future for the great Russia that we all love.” He warned that failure to cast a ballot would mean that “this decisive choice will be made without your opinion taken into account.”
While Putin has seven challengers on the ballot, none is a real threat. The last time he faced voters in 2012, he faced a serious opposition movement, but since then he has boosted his popularity thanks to Russian actions in Ukraine and Syria.
More than 1,500 international observers are joining thousands of Russian observers to watch the vote. The government wants to ensure that this election is clean after ballot stuffing and fraud marred the last presidential election in 2012.
This time the outcome is so certain that authorities are investing in massive get-out-the-vote efforts to ensure a decent turnout that would embolden Putin domestically and internationally.
A Russian election monitoring group said Saturday it has registered an “alarming” rise in recent days in complaints that employers are forcing or pressuring workers to vote.
Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent Golos center, told the AP on Saturday the group has also recorded smaller complaints, such as gimmicks like discounted potatoes for people who vote, or schools holding special performances on Election Day to lure parents to an onsite voting station.
He said his own group has come under increasing pressure as the election approached, and warned that independent observers may be targeted by some kind of “attack” on voting day. He didn’t elaborate.
As U.S. authorities investigate alleged Russian interference in President Donald Trump’s 2016 election, Moscow has warned of possible meddling in the Russian vote.
Turnout-boosting efforts have been the most visible feature of the campaign — and all come from taxpayers’ pockets. In Moscow alone, authorities are spending 50 million rubles ($870,000) on balloons and festive decorations at polling stations.