Russia - non-election time!

[robert99]

Russia votes in election unlikely to loosen Putin's grip on power
Parliamentary elections are under way in Russia, with voting taking place across the vast country from the Pacific Ocean in the far east to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.

The results are not expected to lead to any dramatic changes, with the established political parties all broadly supportive of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.

It is the first parliamentary vote since 2011, when accusations of vote rigging led tens of thousands of Russians to take to the streets in a series of protests that lasted until Putin’s inauguration for a new term in May 2012.

Russia picks Duma, regional heads in Single Election Day

 

[robert99]

Allegations of voter fraud surface in Russian parliamentary polls | News | DW.COM | 18.09.2016
Allegations of voter fraud surface in Russian parliamentary polls

Russian officials have said they're investigating reports of vote rigging in a Siberian region during nationwide parliamentary elections. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party is expected to win the largest share of votes.

Results from the Altai region in Siberia could be discounted if allegations of vote fraud there are confirmed, Russia's election commission said Sunday.

'Massive violations'

Election commission head Ella Pamfilova said Sunday morning she had received reports of so-called "carousel voting" - where votes are cast several times - in the Siberian city of Barnaul. She said if the reports were found to be true, the commission would call for criminal prosecution and "consider annulling the elections." She added that everything was "going normally" in other regions.

But Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of Russian opposition PARNAS party, told DW that "massive violations" had also been reported elsewhere, including in the capital.

"In Moscow, for example, they witnessed so-called carousel voting… And in the Samara region, our observers were prevented from entering polling stations," he said.

Election monitoring group Golos also said on its website that irregularities had been reported in a number of regions.

 

[robert99]

Russian opposition bemoans voter apathy | World | DW.COM | 19.09.2016
United Russia's victory comes from an election with a turnout of 48 percent. Even fewer voted in large cities such as St. Petersburg and Moscow, where just 35 percent of eligible voters showed up to the polls. The historically low turnout is nearly half what it was in the 2011 election.

The "collapse in turnout," particularly in Moscow, was the real takeaway from the election, said well-known opposition politician, Vladimir Ryzhkov, who tried unsuccessfully to be directly elected. "The most educated, dynamic, democratic voters just didn't go vote," he told DW. This was the "main catastrophe," he added. Dmitry Gudkov, another well-known opposition leader, also failed in his Duma bid. Writing on Facebook, he blamed the low turnout and voter ambivalence.