RUSSIA’S LEAGUE of Voters, an organisation for fair elections which conducted a parallel count of Russia’s presidential elections, has described the result as “an insult to civil society”.
It did admit prime minister and president-elect Vladimir Putin won the election, but with about 53 per cent of the vote rather than the 63 per cent officially announced.
Refusing to recognise the official results, a statement from the league said it believed “the March 4th elections were unfair because the counting of votes and the announcement of the results were accompanied by systematic fraud, which greatly distorted the expression of the will of voters”.
“Against the backdrop of widespread violations, the league believes it impossible to accept the outcome of presidential elections in Russia in 2012.”
The statement, in similar terms to that issued by observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, noted it felt the elections were not fair because of discrimination against candidates who were unable to get on to the ballot paper, and the favouritism shown by state-controlled media to Mr Putin. This, the statement said, limited the choice open to citizens and failed to provide genuine competition.
The league’s announcement came as opponents of Mr Putin received permission from the Moscow City Government to hold a demonstration of 50,000 people on Novy Arbat street in central Moscow on Saturday afternoon.
One of the league’s most famous members, writer Boris Akunin – whose detective novels set in 19th century Russia are immensely popular here – spoke of an end to the type of mass rally that has dominated Russia’s street politics since the disputed parliamentary elections in December.
The period leading up to the presidential election was characterised, he said, by “romantic” demonstrations in which people displayed their solidarity through white ribbons and white balloons. But that romanticism, he said, had now come to an end. “People have come to realise that balloons and ribbons don’t work against the Omon [Russia’s riot police],” he told a press conference at the headquarters of the independent Interfax news agency in Moscow.
Suggesting a shift in emphasis and strategy, Akunin said it would be natural for numbers attending the rallies to decrease and that the actions of civil society should now be directed towards a reorganisation and demands for new local elections in Moscow.
Another key league member, TV journalist Sergei Parfyonov, said the aim should be the replacement of Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who was appointed to the post by President Dmitry Medvedev. He should, Parfyonov said, be replaced by a candidate elected by the people.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Putin sought to downplay the league’s report. “There is nothing new in this,” he said. “This is what they said even before the elections took place.” Describing himself as “your humble servant”, he emphasised that even the league had recognised he had achieved more than the 50 per cent needed to win in the first round.
The opposition, he added, would not become a real political force until it was able to articulate its proposals for the development of the country and prove it offered an attractive alternative.
He had never refused to engage in dialogue with the opposition, he said, but was waiting for them to come up with a constructive approach for the future development of the country.
A spokesman for the Central Election Commission, Leonid Ivlev, echoed Mr Putin’s view that the league’s stance on the election was decided even before the election took place.