United Russia wins polls under new rules, opposition cry foul

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Published time: October 15, 2012 11:23
Edited time: October 15, 2012 16:51

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Election, Opposition, Politics, Protest, Russia, Scandal

United Russia leader Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated party members over the victory in all the municipal elections held on Sunday, and reminded them of their obligations to the voters and political allies.

The elections were held under new rules and after the changes in the law on political parties. They were carried out in a ‘civilized way’ without any significant violations, Medvedev told top United Russia officials. “This raises hope that in future the elections will be held in the same civilized and democratic manner,” the Russian PM added.

The party leader noted that the talk and forecast of a downward trend in United Russia popularity proved to be false and that the victory was achieved under new elections rules – “there were more participating parties and the United Russia result is higher”.

However, Medvedev stressed that United Russia’s main objective was not simply a victory, but also strict observance of fair play, competition rules and of course the elections laws.

He added that after the victory at the municipal elections the party must concentrate on everyday problems, not complicated issues of nation-scale politics, as this was the only way to win the people’s trust. “The elections went well, but it is too early to relax,” Medvedev concluded.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked the voters for supporting the institutes of power. Putin said the results of Sunday’s poll did not come as a surprise and added that it was another step confirming the electorate’s intent to support the development of Russian statehood.

Other top United Russia officials agreed that the support of the party remains high in large cities and major municipal centers. “I think it is a matter of principle, as after the December poll many people said that United Russia lost its dominance in large cities. Now it is obvious that the party demonstrated at this latest poll that it retains the dominance status in large cities,” said deputy chairman of UR’s General Council, Aleksey Chesnakov.

Opposition parties admitted defeat but concentrated on alleged violations during the polls, sometimes presenting the situation as a “complete disaster”.

The most radical position was expressed Fair Russia MP Dmitry Gudkov who announced via his Twitter that “the authorities leave the people no choice whatsoever”. The politician forecast that soon “all Russia will turn into Bolotnaya Square” hinting at the main venue of street protests that took place in Moscow after the December poll.

The head of the Liberal-Democratic Duma faction, Igor Lebedev, suggested that the protesters choose to ignore the elections. “This was not an organized event, everybody just made decisions for themselves, he added. However, the MP suggested that the low turnout was a warning sign for the ruling party. “United Russia repeats the mistake of the CPSU – usurping the power in their hands, which is a wrong thing to do,” Lebedev told the press.

Mikhail Yemelyanov of the Fair Russia faction also suggested that the low turnout was a sign of strife between the people and the parliamentary majority.

One top official of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation went further and stated that the low turnout was a national disaster. “This is a boycott, a conviction, this is distrust in the election system as a whole,” Sergey Obukhov said.

The head of Fair Russia Sergey Mironov told reporters that though his party candidates performed weakly, the use of “administrative resources” by United Russia was exceptionally high. “We felt that,” the politician told reporters.

Some of the opposition leaders, however, suggested that the low turnout was provoked by United Russia as it suited the party objectives. “Those in power have dug the new trenches for their defense. Before they let no one to take part in the polls and now they allowed all to run, but dropped the turnout and honed the falsification technologies,” said Mikhail Kasyanov of the Republican Party of Russia.

The number of reported violations at the election varies greatly depending on the source. According to the opposition parties, there were numerous violations, mostly taking the form of ballot stuffing by hired fraudsters. Russian activists and journalists even branded the trick as the “merry-go-round”. Monitors also reported illegal voting and most often – illegal propaganda at the polling stations. The Human Rights NGO Golos (“Voice”) reports that its activists registered about 800 such violations throughout the country.

On the other hand, the official Central Elections Commission reported that there were only 55 registered violations on all the elections, including some bizarre incidents, such as “pens with disappearing ink” and a broken traffic light on the way to the polling station.

Comments (7)

Count Cash 18.10.2012 06:19

Yes, this election was simply about ‘comfort’ with what is going on in Russia. It didn’t signify massive blind support and it didn’t signify nor any disdain for the government. Basically it had stability written all over it. This is a good sign which has now to be built and built upon so that hopefully that ‘comfort’ is increased - leaving it at the same level is not an option even if this performance is seen as restorative. The issues to work on are well known, people want their living standards increased further, they want the health service to work in terms of access, quality and the service paradigm, they want education back to a state of fit for purpose quality and fair access, they want equal access to opportunities in employment without the fury hands and where risk and initiative are shown, they want the resultant fruits protected for themselves…… However, for the ‘opposition’ it was a different story, these elections were simply a humiliation and hopefully a wake up call, many of their candidates simply had to withdraw to avoid embarrassment and those that stayed were well beaten. There was a very simple message delivered by our citizens to the ‘opposition’– come to us with proposals, with platforms, with credibility that you can be trusted otherwise you will get nowhere in terms of winning power. Let’s all hope that finally the ‘opposition’ get the message that simple slogans, gimmicks, western agent leaders, street protests will count for nothing – we want meat, if you want us to visit your restaurant.

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MEJanssen (unregistered) 16.10.2012 14:39

I think one cause of the low turnout might be apathy by the voters. This was not an election for national office, after all. Plus I just heard that things are going relatively comfortably for the middle class, which tripled in size in the past 5 years. Is it any wonder the United Russia party claims credit for that and gets re-elected? Here in the States, turnout for the "in-between years" for just the local elections usually runs under 50 percent, except for those localities that might have a scandal brewing to bring out the irate voters. So the low Russian turnout might be due to comfort as well as resignation about local crooks.

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JosefC 16.10.2012 03:24

In the USA, most vote the slightly better of two dunces. I would just hate to have another senile president who promised a lackluster administration with the Alaskan quitter who just could have been President. We escaped McCain, but ignored his Party only because of Bush. We re-elected the Iran-contra felon who escaped Nixon's disgrace although he should have been imprisoned. Speaking of Nixon and Agnew, why is it so difficult to imprison white collar criminals? All we did is make them resign. Then why did we imprison Alfonse Capone? Right now as we plan to vote, there are those hard at work to undo our votes. How legal or moral is is to force employees to vote for your candidate as is now being done by the brothers Koch?

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