Russian election starts early for reindeer herders, sailors
Russia`s parliamentary election opened Friday for reindeer herders, sailors, soldiers and others in remote corners of the world`s biggest country, two weeks before official polling day.
Thirty two of Russia`s 88 regions were conducting early voting ahead of the December 2 election to the State Duma, the Central Election Commission said, according to Interfax news agency.
This included sailors aboard some 140 ships at sea off the oil-rich, northern Pacific island of Sakhalin, as well as those in outlying fishing communities and oil facilities in the region -- about 3,000 people in all, Interfax said.
In the Siberian region of Yakutia, which like most of Russia is already deep in winter snows, another 7,000 people from 553 communities were eligible for early voting.
"Most of these are from the indigenous peoples with a traditional way of life: horse breeders, reindeer herders, fishermen, hunters," RIA Novosti news agency quoted local election officials as saying.
Members of geological expeditions, staff at far-flung meteorological stations and soldiers on Russia`s vast frontiers were also eligible.
In Kamchatka, a sparsely inhabited region famous for giant crabs, geysers and live volcanoes, about 4,000 people were eligible, but stormy weather was preventing helicopters from taking off, Interfax reported.
The early voting came as the State Duma held its last session Friday before breaking up for the campaign season.
The ruling United Russia party, whose star candidate is Russian President Vladimir Putin, is widely forecast to boost its current majority on December 2 to well over two thirds of the Duma`s 450 seats -- enough to pass changes to the constitution.
Eleven parties are registered to compete, but only two others, possibly only one, are predicted to cross the seven percent threshold for being awarded seats in the Duma.
Analysts see the Duma election as a crucial step in Putin`s preparations for leaving office -- and possibly still holding onto power -- at the end of his second Kremlin term next year.
Putin is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in March 2 presidential elections.
But speculation is growing in Moscow that the ex-KGB officer, who came to power in 2000, will assume another important role from which he can continue to lead the country.
A massive public relations campaign has transformed Putin`s previously faceless United Russia party into a political machine far more powerful than even its nearest rivals, the Communists.
Meanwhile, a well publicised campaign is gathering steam to call on Putin to change the constitution and stay as president for a third term, or to adopt some new role as national father figure.
On Thursday, a new group held an inaugural congress in Tver, north of Moscow, to demand that Putin continue running the country.
Analysts say the organisation, the All-Russian Council of Initiative Groups to Support Putin, is the latest in a series of Kremlin-orchestrated initiatives portrayed in the state media as having grass roots support.
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