On Sunday, 2 March 2008 the Russian citizens made their decision and elected a new President. The victory of Dmitry Medvedev, successor of Vladimir Putin, was predictable. According to the last information he gathered 70, 21% of the 98, and 78% counted votes. The European observers called the elections “not free and fair”. (03-MAR-08)
Written by Inna Komar/HRH Moscow
Sources: http://www.lenta.ru, http://www.hro.org, http://www.guardian.co.uk
The results
2 March 2008 elections of the President of Russian Federation took place. No intrigue, no surprises. The winner of this “raise” became Dmitry Medvedev, the successor of Vladimir Putin, the today’s President of the Russian Federation (right). According to the latest information Medvedev gathered 70,21% of the 98,78% counted votes, Gennady Ziuganov (Communist Party) – 17,77%, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of the Russian Federation Vladimir Zhirinovsky is in third place with 9,37%, and self-nominated candidate Andrei Bogdanov is fourth with 1,29% of the votes.
The total turnout in the Russian Federation was 69.65%. In 7 regions of the Russian Federation the turnout exceeded 90%! They are Chechen Republic (91, 2%), Karachaevo-Cherkessiya, Ingushetiya, Republic of Dagestan, Mordoviya, Bashkiriya, Yamalo-Nenezkiy region. In Moscow only 65, 92% of voters came to the polling stations to make their “choice”.
Violations during elections
From the very beginning of the campaign the Russian human rights activists could hardly call the elections “democratic and free”. A lot of citizens preferred whether not to go to vote or to burn their bulletins (right). However a lot of violations took place during the elections. As www.hro.org reported, experts from Independent Association “GOLOS” (“VOICE) got 1166 messages with information concerning various violations during the election process (among them are pressure on voters, results falsifications, briberies, illegal agitation and others).
For example, on one of the Moscow polling stations the observers stated 121 voters and the election commission registered 322. A ridiculous case happened in Novosibirsk: from the local Maternity home was gotten 169 bulletins, thought there were only 69 patients. In Krasnodar those people who voted were given a lottery ticket or a glass of wine (Krasnodar region is very famous for its wonderful wine), such actions are strictly forbidden in accordance of the Russian legislation. The list of violations is becoming bigger.
The observers` opinion
Around 300 observers from international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Council of Europe´s Parliamentary Assembly, monitored the vote. However, Europe´s main election watchdog, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), decided to boycott the election because of Moscow-imposed restrictions. European observers this morning condemned Russia´s presidential election, won overwhelmingly by Dmitry Medvedev, as “not fair” and a denial of the “democratic potential” of the country´s voters.
In a critical assessment that nonetheless fell short of the tougher statement many had predicted, the Council of Europe´s parliamentary assembly called yesterday´s poll “more of a plebiscite” than a proper democratic election.
