Fraud and pressure marred Russian election: monitors

By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Corruption, official pressure on voters and Soviet-era turnout figures were features of Russia's parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin's party in a landslide, independent monitors said on Tuesday.

"I'd call this election a triumph of political corruption," Transparency International's Yuly Nisnevich told a news conference. "I am afraid the fight against corruption has ended in our country."

The Russian branch of Berlin-based Transparency International and Golos, an independent network of election observers, presented their findings based on vote violations their monitors had documented at the December 2 election.

Ballot box stuffing was widespread, said Andrei Buzin, an expert at Golos.

He cited a case at a polling station in central Moscow where a monitor said he had spotted a local election commission official throwing a wad of ballots into a box, minutes before the station had been due to open on December 2.

In another case, a district election commission in Moscow added 812 votes in favor of Putin's United Russia party to a protocol from a polling station, Buzin said.

"This is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail. This must be a strong signal that we have really degenerated to a level very close to Soviet election standards," he said.

Putin had said a big win for his United Russia party would give him a "moral right" to continue to influence Russian politics after he stepped down in 2008.

Putin told local officials to ensure high turnout and exhorted voters to back his party. "In line with the law, the president ... must only be involved in political activity during out-of-office hours," Nisnevich said.

Transparency International said officials and public sector workers were pressured into voting and some were sacked if they did not secure a big turnout.

"Fourteen municipal heads or their deputies have been simply sacked and seventeen others reprimanded," Nisnevich said. "In Moscow, employees of an administrative district were not paid their bonuses because of low voter support for United Russia."

INTIMIDATION AND PRESSURE

United Russia won the December 2 election with more than 64 percent of votes. The Communist Party finished a distant second with around 16 percent.

The United States and Europe demanded Russia investigate allegations of election abuses and observers from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the election was not fair.

Central Election Commission head Vladimir Churov dismissed opposition claims of fraud and said there were no major violations. The Kremlin said the result was a fair reflection of Putin's huge popularity.