Russia: the opposition denounces massive fraud in the aftermath of legislative elections

The Russian opposition denounced, Monday, September 21, massive fraud in the aftermath of the legislative elections, the Kremlin party claiming a two-thirds super-majority, following a poll in which the detractors of President Vladimir Putin were excluded.

The United Russia formation gathered 49.64% of the vote, according to results covering 95.15% of the polling stations. Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his fellow citizens on Monday after legislative elections marked by a clear victory for the Kremlin party but strongly criticized by the opposition which denounced massive fraud.

“I would particularly like to thank the Russian citizens, thank you for your trust dear friends,” he said during a meeting with the head of the Election Commission broadcast on television.

According to a party leader, Andrei Turtchak, the presidential camp has won more than two-thirds of the seats in the lower house of Parliament, the Duma, as in the previous election five years ago. It will have at least 315 out of 450 mandates, a majority sufficient to reform the Constitution without the support of other forces.

“For the president (Putin), the most important thing is of course that the elections were competitive, in transparency and probity”, estimated the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, welcoming moreover that United Russia has ” fulfilled its mission “.

The ruling party is ahead of the Communists (19.41%) but its score nevertheless represents a drop from the 54.2% and 334 seats won in 2016.

The anti-Kremlin opposition, essentially banned from voting like Alexeï Navalny – imprisoned – denounced massive fraud: ballot stuffing, suspicious postponement of the results of the online vote, count observers chased away polling stations …

Suspicions of violations that the German government asked Monday to “clarify”, while the European Union denounced a climate of “intimidation” and the lack of international observers.

“Dirty kitchen”

The communist leader, Guennadi Ziouganov, generally measured, also denounced the falsifications and called on Vladimir Poutine to put an end to “this dirty cooking”. These elections “will deepen growing divisions in society,” he warned.

In Moscow, the stronghold of Kremlin critics, the latter claimed that the results of the online vote had been falsified, thus reversing the unfavorable trend towards United Russia observed during the counting of paper votes.

“Shame on the authors, initiators and thinkers of this stagnation”, reacted on the site of Radio Echo of Moscow, Sergei Mitrokhine, candidate of the small liberal Yabloko party and who considers himself duped.

“These are the elections of electronic fraud”, blurted on Twitter Ivan Jdanov, a lieutenant in exile of Alexeï Navalny, “it is not a counting but a theft”.

The popularity of United Russia was at half mast before the vote, with a confidence rating of less than 30%, according to the barometer of the state institute Vtsiom. The party has been plagued by corruption cases and falling living standards in recent years.

“Sane people (…) could not vote for this party,” said Dmitri Gavrilov, Moscow voter and member of the Russian Writers’ Union, to AFP.

The specialist NGO Golos described as “obvious” the decline in the “level of transparency” and “clarity of the electoral system”.

Suspicions of “massive irregularities” must be “taken seriously” and “clarified”, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said during a regular press briefing, regretting that he did not There was no international “election observation” of this election, won by the ruling United Russia party.

“Smart vote”

The President of the Electoral Commission, Ella Pamfilova, brushed aside these accusations, praising the “transparency” of the ballot. Just like Tamara Pronina, a 59-year-old archivist, interviewed by AFP in Moscow: “Everything went according to the rules, without significant violations and I am very happy that United Russia won.”

Given the Communists’ rising score, Alexei Navalny’s movement claimed the success of their “smart vote” strategy, consisting in calling to vote for the candidates best placed to hamper those in United Russia, for lack of been able to participate in the elections.

Supporters of the opponent, imprisoned since his return to Russia in January after a poisoning he attributes to the Kremlin, were banned from the ballot because their organization was banned for “extremism”.

These elections were preceded by months of repression and the sidelining of almost all anti-Putin opponents. The authorities also forced Apple and Google to remove the application of Alexeï Navalny’s team giving voting instructions.

Besides United Russia and the Communists, three parties are in a position to sit in the Duma: the nationalists of LDPR (7.47%), the centrists of Just Russia (7.42%) and a newcomer, the “News people “(5.39%). These formations are considered in the line of power.

The Kremlin party also tops dozens of regional polls, as in Chechnya, where authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov won 99.6% of the vote.

With AFP