Vote monitors boycott Russia as early balloting starts
A decision by Europe`s top election observer body not to monitor Russia`s parliamentary election overshadowed the start of early voting in remote areas of the world`s biggest country Friday.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it was withdrawing a planned mission because of a lack of cooperation from President Vladimir Putin`s administration ahead of the December 2 election.
The Russian government shrugged off the move and voting started as planned for reindeer herders, sailors, soldiers and others in remote corners of the world`s biggest country, two weeks before official polling.
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.
The OSCE said Russian authorities "remain unwilling to receive... observers in a timely and cooperative manner and cooperate fully with them."
In a statement the watchdog said it would "be unable to deliver its mandate under these circumstances" and had written to Russian authorities to tell them it "regretted this conclusion."
Moscow`s reaction was dismissive. The OSCE "has the right to take any decision," foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Russian state television showed election officials handing out ballots to voters in thick, hooded overcoats in the icy conditions of the country`s far east and far north.
A handful of people across 32 of Russia`s 85 regions were eligible to cast early ballots, the Central Election Commission said, according to Interfax news agency.
These included sailors on 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 much 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 a local election official 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 storms prevented helicopters from taking off to deliver ballot boxes, 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 Putin, is widely forecast to boost its 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.
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 United Russia party into a political machine far more powerful than its nearest rivals, the Communists.
State media is also publicising a series of calls 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.
|
