Stuffed ballots and scare tactics seen in Russia vote

By Simon Shuster

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Reports of ballot-stuffing, vote-buying and intimidation in Sunday's Russian parliamentary election have poured in from dozens of regions, independent election monitors said.

The alleged fraud, which threatens to tarnish the victory of President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, ranged from detaining observers to offering gifts in exchange for a pro-Putin vote.

"A group called Young Europe is inviting people who vote for Putin's team to take part in a lottery for prizes," such as TVs and refrigerators, said Leonid Gozman, a top official for opposition party Union of Right Forces in St. Petersburg.

"This looks like a mass action. People are showing up at the polls and asking: 'Where are the presents, where is the lottery?' and they are told, 'First you vote, then you get the presents,'" Gozman said.

Putin had promised a fair and transparent election and the head of the Central Electoral Commission, Vladimir Churov, said voting had progressed "calmly and according to schedule". Churov has not commented so far on specific allegations of violations.

After initial results showed United Russia on course for at least 60 percent of the vote, United Russia chief Boris Gryzlov, said the violations were not significant.

"Of course there are violations, but the question is do they have an impact on the final result ... They in no way put in doubt the final result," Gryzlov told a news conference.

The main source of complaints has been Golos, Russia's only independent election observer. Its deputy head, Grigory Melkonyans, said the fraud was systematic.

"These are not isolated incidents. The complaints are from every corner of Russia," he said.

Observers from former Soviet states, who are monitoring the vote in several regions, found no serious problems, however.

"If any criticism is to be expressed, it is of a technical nature," said Bakytzhan Zhumagulov, the deputy speaker of Kazakhstan's parliament, Interfax reported.

The West's main election monitoring body, the ODIHR, cancelled its mission to Russia, citing visa delays and other hurdles. This left fewer than 80 Western observers to watch over 96,000 polling stations in the world's biggest country.

Observers from Russia's political parties, except for Putin's United Russia party, lambasted the vote.

A common trick they reported involved bussing young people to one polling station after another so they could cast numerous votes, a tactic known as carouseling, which was reported in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In regions such as Chechnya, the turnout was improbably high. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov put participation in his wartorn republic at more than 99 percent, RIA Novosti reported.