And the losers are...
Regional elections were held in Russia. Are the elections and accusations of fraud just rehearsals for national elections next year? Or are they more like reruns of Soviet elections?Ruling Party Is Accused of Fraud in Russian Vote
Voters in Russia went to the polls… in regional elections amid complaints by the opposition of ballot-stuffing and other violations by the governing party, United Russia.
The vote is being watched as an indicator of public support for United Russia ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in 2012. Polling by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed that support for United Russia slipped below 50 percent during the first months of the year, its lowest point since 2007…
Communist Party officials in the southern city of Saratov said Sunday that they had documented numerous violations, including unsanctioned rallies by pro-Kremlin groups, crude measures to block election observers’ views of ballot boxes and attempts to stuff as many as 1,000 ballots for United Russia…
A top United Russia official on Sunday acknowledged that ballot-stuffing on the party’s behalf had been captured on video and that voters had received phone calls pressuring them to vote for the party, but he said the incidents had been staged by the opposition to frame United Russia…
Disenchantment with United Russia may suppress turnout, but does not necessarily drive Russian voters to support the opposition. The strongest competitor, the Communist Party, is polling at a steady 8 percent, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party at 7 percent and A Just Russia at 5 percent, according to the Public Opinion Research Center’s most recent poll.
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Labels: elections, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:32 AM
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