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Russian polls open
Russian polls open
Sunday December 02, 2007
Russians began voting Sunday in a parliamentary election set to hand President Vladimir Putin's party a huge majority and reinforce his campaign to retain authority after leaving the Kremlin.
Three months of campaigning were overshadowed by accusations from Putin's opponents that blanket media coverage and vast government resources had been employed to ensure a victory for the pro-Kremlin party United Russia.
As its lead candidate, Putin has said a convincing victory for United Russia would give him a "moral mandate" to influence the government once he steps down after presidential polls in March next year.
The first voters trickled into Polling Station Number 32 in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at 8:00 am Sunday (2000 GMT Saturday) on a freezing, dark morning on Russia's Pacific coast, an AFP reporter said.
Eleven time zones to the west, the last polling stations were to close on Sunday at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.
Opinion polls predicted United Russia would win at least 62 percent of the vote, securing them a large majority of the 450-seat lower house, the State Duma, with the Communist Party trailing far behind with some 12 percent.
"I believe in Putin, he's made our lives better," said pensioner Galina Nikolayeva after voting for United Russia. "I'd like Putin to remain president, but if he's part of United Russia he can still do something for us."
With their domination of the legislature all but guaranteed, United Russia cast the elections as a referendum on Putin's rule, saying that a vote for the party would safeguard the country's oil-driven economic boom and stability.
"The result of the parliamentary elections will, without a doubt, set the tone for the elections for a new president," Putin said in a televised address on Thursday.
Former KGB officer Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, is banned by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term in March 2008 presidential elections. With under a month to go before a deadline for candidates to declare for the Kremlin race, the field remains wide open.
Putin and his Kremlin allies are hoping that a strong victory coupled with a high turnout in Sunday's polls will give them a free hand to lay the groundwork for the presidential vote, analysts say.
In the final days of campaigning, Putin appeared to confirm that he would not stand in that election, but whether he plans to anoint a successor, perhaps temporarily while he prepares a return to the presidency, remains unclear.
Opposition forces have accused the Kremlin of suppressing debate during the campaign by dominating television coverage on state media, confiscating their election leaflets and arresting members.
Former chess champion turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, who spent five days behind bars last week for taking part in an unauthorised protest against Putin, dismissed the elections as a "farce."
"I voted for the Union of Right Forces because they're not United Russia," said Alexei Gutkin, a 42-year-old engineer, after casting his ballot for one of Russia's small centre-right parties in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. "United Russia is like a return to the Communist Party. I remember that time well."
Election watchdog organisations have voiced concern over allegations that voters have come under pressure from authorities to turn out and vote, with many told to cast ballots at their workplaces, under the watchful eye of their bosses.
The United States on Friday said it would be closely watching as some 109 million Russians are eligible to cast ballots in Russia's fifth election since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Some 450,000 police officers will be on duty across the country on Sunday to ensure order as voters flock to the 95,000 polling stations.
Fijilive
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