Voting has drawn to a close on Russia’s nationwide election day, which sees officials elected to the federal parliament and dozens of municipal and regional bodies. Spanning 11 time zones, the voting took place over 22 hours, with each polling station open from 8:00am to 8:00pm local time.
19 September 2016
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which sent several hundred observers to monitor the Russian elections, noted an increased level of transparency in the electoral process, although it said problems still remain. The International Election Observation Mission, which is a joint undertaking of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), consists of 482 observers from 44 countries.
“The improved transparency and trust we have seen in the election administration are important steps,” said Ilkka Kanerva, a Finnish parliamentarian and the OSCE’s special coordinator for the elections.
Russia’s Central Election Commission “worked in a transparent and professional manner, earning widespread confidence among stakeholders,” the mission said Monday in a statement. “There was general confidence in the accuracy of voter registration.”
However, the OSCE noted “low-key” campaigns and voter engagement, an “overly complex” legal framework, and administrative resources misused for campaign purposes, among other issues.
The OSCE said the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) received as many as 1,896 ‘applications’ which cited alleged violations in the electoral procedures, and reviewed 12 of them in a transparent manner. “All other complaints were considered by individual commission members in a process lacking transparency,” OSCE said.
“Election day was orderly overall, but the long-term observation showed that challenges to democratic commitments remain, especially with regard to the media, candidate registration and legal framework,” said Ambassador Jan Petersen, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR long-term election observation mission.
Communist Party of Russia leader Gennady Zyuganov believes that the results of yesterday’s parliamentary elections look rather suspicious, with the ruling party still managing to gain a majority of votes, even though its performance in recent years has been on the decline. In 2007, nearly 54 million people voted for United Russia. In 2011, Putin’s party had 12 million less supporters, while this year it has garnered 5 million votes less, he said at a news conference.
“The way United Russia acts is destroying the political system in Russia, deceiving its people and offending those who trust in other parties. If Putin and his supporters keep sticking to this scheme… we should expect a lot of difficulties in the future,” Zyuganov noted.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of election fraud in the central Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. A video posted on YouTube showed a woman putting a number of ballots into the ballot box while two other women hid her from the observers. The criminal case was launched against the woman, who was the secretary of the local election commission. Both the election commission and the Investigative Committee said they are looking into the incident.
Election results at one of the districts in Nizhny Novgorod Region, central Russia, have been determined to be invalid due to numerous breaches, Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said.
At another electoral district in the southern republic of Dagestan, the elections were declared invalid as well, according to the Central Election Commission.
The United Russia party is set to have a total of 343 seats in the 450-member lower house of Parliament: 140 of them come from party lists, and 203 are single-constituency candidates.
The Communist Party (KPRF) gained 42 seats, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) - 39 seats and Fair Russia - 23 seats, the Central Election Commission said after counting 93 percent of the ballots.
Turnout across Russia has been estimated at 47.81 percent, while in Moscow, it is 35.18 percent, according to the Central and Moscow City Election Commissions.
The ruling United Russia party has 54.2 percent of the vote after 90 percent ballots have been counted by Monday morning, data from the election commission shows.
The Communist party is in second place with 13.5 percent of the vote, followed by the Liberal Democrats party (LDPR) on 13.3 percent and the Fair Russia party on 6.2 percent, according to the incomplete vote count.
Russian people support political stability, Vladimir Putin said as he visited the United Russia campaign office. “The situation is not easy and people see it – and they want the political system and society to remain stable,” the president said, as quoted by TASS. “Ordinary people know that empty promises are worth nothing,” he added, commenting on preliminary election results and stressing that United Russia will continue its work aimed at Russia’s development.
18 September 2016
Some party leaders expressed concern at the low voter turnout during Sunday’s elections. “Two-thirds of Russians refused to go to the polling stations, this is a very alarming sign,” said Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party.
Meanwhile, Russia's human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova, said that Ukraine was the only country where Russian voters’ rights were violated, as reported by TASS. “We all saw unprecedented incidents involving violence and sabotage [of] the opportunity [for Russian citizens] to visit our consulate facilities,” she said, adding that she sent telegrams to the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman, to the UN high commissioner for human rights, to the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, and to Vigaudas Ushatskas, the EU ambassador in Russia in the light of the incident.
With 20.45 percent of votes counted, early results suggest that the ruling United Russia party heads the poll with 50.01 percent, Russian Central Elections Committee said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived at the United Russia party campaign office, where the PM, who is also the chairman of Russia’s ruling party, delivered a speech to party members and thanked Putin, who is the party founder, for demonstrating support for United Russia by visiting the campaign office.
Medvedev also called the election results “a victory” for the party.
The Russian Central Elections Committee said that it will publish final data on Sunday’s electoral turnouts on Monday, 10:00am Moscow time, after the committee members count the number of ballots.
RT's special coverage of Russia parliamentary elections and early results.
Russia has made an “extraordinary” effort to make the 2016 elections transparent, Gilbert Doctorow, from the American Committee for East-West Accord, told RT.
He was also impressed that during the elections, the Russian voters were given bulletins for “single-mandate candidates, which had information about the personal wealth of these candidates.”
“That doesn’t mean that the whole of [the] Russian elections have been getting top marks,” Doctorow added, saying that distribution of advertising time on TV ahead of the vote is an issue which deserves examination.
With the vote count still in its early stages, the expert said that surprises may be expected due to a low turnout in Moscow and other major cities.
With 10 percent of votes counted, early results suggest that the ruling United Russia party heads the polls with 45.95 percent, followed by right-wing party LDPR with 17.4 percent and the Russian Communist Party with 16.76 percent. Fair Russia comes fourth with 6.36 percent, the Russian Central Elections Committee said.
Polling stations have closed in Russia's parliamentary elections. Early results suggest the ruling United Russia party obtained 44.5 percent, according to exit polls conducted by state pollster VTSIOM. LDPR, the Communist party and A Just Russia also cleared the 5 percent threshold.
READ MORE: Russian polls close on national election day, early results indicate United Russia lead
The Russian Interior Ministry has confirmed ballot box stuffing in the city of Rostov, that had previously been reported and demonstrated in a video posted on YouTube. The ballot stuffing was “documented by voice and data recorders,” the ministry’s spokesman said, adding that the incident is under investigation along with some other violations.
Moscow starts vote count! Kaliningrad, Russia's western-most city, has one more hour to go.
Polling stations in Moscow will close in less than 30 minutes.
The Chechen Republic in southern Russia is one of the three Russian regions with the highest turnout, as over 83 percent of the people have come to the polling stations in the republic as of 3:00pm GMT. Total turnout reached 39.37 percent.
Radicals from the ultranationalist Right Sector also tried to block the entrance to the Russian Consulate General in the city of Odessa, and also tried to pick a fight with police. As a result, from two to four nationalists were detained, according to various media reports. The detained radicals were then released and continued to protest in front of the consulate building.
RT's latest report on Single Election Day
No significant violations have been recorded during the elections so far, the Russian Interior Ministry said, as the voting already ended in Russia’s Far East and some Siberian regions.
A resident of the Siberian city of Omsk in Russia came to the polling station dressed as a famous comics and movie character - Iron Man.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot said in a Twitter post that she will not recognize the results of the Russian State Duma elections in Crimea, adding that she regards the peninsula as “illegally annexed.”
Russian State Duma elections are also taking place in the Russian Consulate General in Montreal, Canada.
Ukrainian radical nationalists have ended their protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev and vacated the square near the building. At the same time, Ukrainian law enforcement released some of the protesters, who were previously detained for clashing with police and beating a Russian voter.
Meanwhile, reports of some violations at the polling stations have been posted on Russian Twitter. The deputy head of the Russian Central Elections Committee said that the elections watchdog would look into all the reports, adding at the same time that most of them either do not correspond to reality, or are “exaggerated.” At the same time, the head of Russia’s Central Elections Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, said that, if the reports are confirmed, the voting results in the regions affected will be overturned.
In one such instance, a video posted on YouTube purports to show a violation at the one of the polling stations in the central Russian city of Rostov. A woman can be seen putting a number of ballots into the ballot box while two other women are hiding her from the observers. The local electoral commission and the Investigative Committee are looking into the incident.
The total turnout at the Russian State Duma elections amounted to “almost 33 percent” by 3:00pm Moscow time (12:00 GMT), the deputy head of the Russian Central Elections Committee told journalists.
For those whose health does not allow to leave home, so-called "field teams" work all over the country.
More than 1,100 people have voted in the Russian State Duma elections in the Czech Republic, diplomatic officials told Russian media. At the same time, more than 5,000 Russian voters came to the polling stations in Germany, the spokesman of the Russian Embassy in Berlin told journalists, adding that the current turnout exceeds that of the previous election.
Six centenarians have cast their ballots in the Alsheevsk area of Bashkiria in the southern part of the Urals zone, the Central Election Commission reported. All of the women, the oldest of them aged 103, voted at home. Antonina Bozhko, 102, said as she cast her ballot that she wanted to be represented by “decent and knowing people” in the parliament.
Moscow remains one of the least active Russian regions in terms of voting, according to election data. By midday, turnout in the capital was only 8.34 percent, compared to 23 percent on average in the country over the same period of time. St. Petersburg turnout is even lower, standing at 6.13 percent by 12:00am local time.
Nationalist protesters picketing the Russian Embassy in Kiev clashed with police when they tried to detain one of the protesters for throwing an egg at a Russian citizen who was leaving the mission after voting there. Despite the protesters’ effort to protect the egg-thrower, the police grabbed and escorted him through the police cordon, RIA Novosti reported.
As of 12:00pm GMT, about 100 Russians were able to get through to the embassy to vote. Nationalists are shouting at everyone going in or out, calling them criminals and demanding they leave Ukraine.
Russia's consulate service in Munchen, Germany, reports no violations. "We have good guards," they say:
63 nations sent 774 observers to monitor the Russian parliamentary election, member of the Central Election Commission Vasily Likhachev told TASS. The biggest delegations were sent by Kazakhstan, Belarus, and the United States, who sent 102, 69 and 63 monitors respectively.
He added that Russia is counting on them doing their jobs fairly during the election, and expects them to follow the Russian election laws.
RT's latest on Single Election Day
Crimea's Chief Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya has come with her 11-year-old daughter.
By 10am GMT, many senior Russian politicians and officials cast their ballots. Russian President Vladimir Putin, as always, voted in Moscow in a station at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Asked how he was going to celebrate this very important day, Putin told journalist he was heading to work.
A long queue of Russian voters was seen in Riga, Latvia. Polling stations have already opened in over 120 countries; more are to open.
Ukrainian nationalist MP Igor Miroshnichenko, along with a group of men, tried to break a fence surrounding the Russian Embassy in Kiev, as shown in this video from Ukraine’s Channel 112.
The altercation at the embassy entrance continues, according to reports from the scene.
Polling stations are also open outside Russia, like this one in France.
Some voters were not happy with the choice of candidates. According to photos published in social media, they preferred Game of Thrones’ wily dwarf Tyrion Lannister or Pikachu the Pokemon.
Anatoly Ivanishin, who is currently on board the International Space Station as flight engineer for Expedition 29/30, cast his vote in space. His vote was transmitted via an encrypted communication link to mission control, where Oleg Kononenko, who heads the Russian cosmonaut squad, acted as his proxy to cast the ballot.
Ukrainian nationalists are preventing Russian citizens from voting in Odessa in southern Ukraine, TASS reported. At least three were detained by police.
In Amur Region, 60 complaints about various irregularities were filed with the regional election commission, it reported. 43 of them were deemed serious enough for a formal investigation. The majority of complaints regarded alleged attempts to bribe voters. The commission said the number of complaints this year surged compared to 2011, probably due to the fact that there are more elections being held in the region.
This guy votes for Lionel Messi:
In Moscow alone over 3,500 polling stations are under on-line surveillance.
"There is also fun at the polling station, you can make an interesting photo!"
Three people, including Ukrainian nationalist MP Igor Miroshnichenko, came to briefly block the entrance to the Russian embassy in Kiev to prevent Russian citizens from voting, RIA Novosti reported.
Local media reported clashes at the fence of the embassy, which the MP-led group tried to break. The Ukrainian Police reportedly detained one of the assailants.
"Voting done, pies bought," Russians post on social media. Many polling stations are located in schools, where people can be taken back in time to their childhood with canteen food.
A voter died at a polling booth in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia’s Far East. The elderly voter only had time to register and grab a ballot before collapsing in front of the polling booth. The man could not be resuscitated, and succumbed to sudden cardiac arrest.
Voting ended in Russia’s easternmost Kamchanka and Chukotka regions at 8:00am GMT. The turnout was reported as 34.42 percent and 59.34 percent respectively, local election commissions reported. The ballots are being counted.
Vyacheslav Bitarov of the ruling United Russia party became the new leader of North Ossetia, with 56 of 61 MPs voting in favor. The Russian Federation’s 55 regions voted in elections monitored by 774 observers from 63 countries, according to the electoral committee.
RT's latest report on Single Election Day
The polling process in Altay Region was marred by two groups of people reportedly trying to cast multiple ballots by going to several polling stations in the regional capital Barnaul, head of the Russian Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova said.
If confirmed by the police, the results from those stations may be nullified. She said the alleged cheating scheme involves corrupt individuals in election commissions of the polling stations, who now face prosecution.
More than 3,500 polling stations opened on Sunday morning in Moscow Region, which is a separate administrative unit from the Russian capital itself. The region, which has 5.6 million registered voters, elects legislators of its own regional parliament today, in addition to lawmakers of the national parliament. Some areas also hold municipal elections.
Tyva and Kuzbas lead in the turnout among Russia’s Siberian regions, local election officials reported. By midday, 36.5 percent of registered voters, or over 61,000 people, cast ballots in Tyva, compared to 28.03 percent during the previous parliamentary election five years ago. In Tomsk Region, turnout was just 12.14 percent by 12:00am local time.
Some 11,000 security troops are on guard in southern Russian republic of Dagestan, where insurgency remains a threat. The region votes in 18 municipal elections, in addition to the general election on Sunday.
Voters in Russia’s Far East are turning out in lower numbers this year than in the previous general election. As of 3:00pm local time, 26.78 percent of registered voters cast their ballots in Sakhalin Region, compared to 36.05 percent in 2011.
Four polling stations which have opened in Ukraine report no trouble despite a radical nationalist group’s pledge to derail the voting, which came on the eve of election day.
READ MORE: Ukrainian radicals attack Russian Embassy on eve of parliamentary election
The group attacked the Russian Embassy early on Saturday morning with fireworks. Ukrainian officials dismissed the attack as a minor act of hooliganism.
In the first two hours of voting in Yakutia, 7.19 percent managed to cast their votes, while in Amur Oblast 7.75 percent have so far headed to the polling stations. No violations have been registered, RIA reports.
By midday local time in Kamchatka Krai, 14.3 percent of eligible voters had already dropped in their ballots. The proportion is much higher in Chukotka Autonomous District where 33.35 percent have already voted, RIA reported.
According to the Russian Central Election Committee (CEC), up to 1,500 journalists, representing 154 media outlets, including 85 foreign, were accredited to work during the Russian parliamentary election.
This year, 14 political parties are taking part in State Duma elections with some 111.6 million eligible to vote.