Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Russian election

New York Times report:

Putin’s Party Wins in Russia, but Leadership Is Still Clouded

"President Vladimir V. Putin’s party secured a landslide in parliamentary elections on Sunday after a campaign in which the Kremlin persistently hobbled the opposition. Yet while the results represent a triumph for Mr. Putin, they also usher in a new era of political instability for Russia.

"Even as Mr. Putin has been accumulating power, he has been stirring deep uncertainty about his intentions, making it all but impossible to answer a fundamental question about Russia’s future: come the middle of next year, who will be in charge?..."


Reuters: Canada report:

Kremlin hails Putin win in Russia elections

"President Vladimir Putin's party won a large majority in Russia's election on Sunday, but opposition parties cried foul and vowed to contest results which the Kremlin hailed as a big endorsement for Putin.

"First official results showed United Russia winning over 60 percent of the vote -- an outcome likely to be seen by the Kremlin as a strong mandate for Putin to maintain a position of influence after his second presidential term ends next May..."


Deutsche Welle report:

Putin's Party Wins Russia Elections

"Vladimir Putin's United Russia party has taken a landslide majority in parliamentary elections, according to first results. Opposition parties have called the poll a "farce" and threatened to challenge the results.

"President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party dominated as expected in parliamentary elections Dec. 2, which were marred by opposition allegations of manipulation at the polls.

"Immediately after polling stations closed in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad at 1800 GMT, Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov began announcing the results. United Russia, whose top candidate is Putin, took some 63 percent of the vote.

"Following United Russia was the Communist party with roughly 11 percent. The ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party and pro-Kremlin party A Just Russia barely passed the seven percent threshold needed to enter the lower house of parliament, the Duma. Results are expected to file in through the night.

"Turnout was high among the country's 109 million registered voters, with more than 60 percent casting their ballots. The Dec. 2 vote was the fifth parliamentary election since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But it is the first since introducing new rules raising the representational threshold for entering the Duma from 5 to 7 percent..."

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home