The results are out from Russia’s three day long election and unfortunately no surprises have been sprung upon the citizens who are sentenced to another term of Putin’s rule. Unlike elections before, there is yet again large suspicions of the elections legitimacy being raised.
There have been multiple reports of ballot boxes being stuffed, forced elections, and most likely major miscalculations of online ballots. According to the New York Times, “Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of independent R. Politik political consultancy, said Russia’s parliamentary vote was not really an election but “the administering of a planned result.” Eight parties, including Kremlin-friendly factions and several independents, were expected to get seats.” On a few separate occasions, the electoral commission CCTV cameras caught incidents of people shoving hundreds of papers to throw off the actual numbers of the election. Although Russia's Election commission has stated that all fraudulent votes have been annulled, critics continue to argue otherwise insisting that there must be at least thousands of different occasions in which unlawful voting has occurred, “A U.S. State Department statement said the conditions surrounding the election were “not conducive to free and fair proceedings.” It criticized both the “widespread efforts to marginalize independent political figures” before the vote and use of laws to restrict people’s political rights”.
Another huge concern of the citizens is the new online election ballots, which Putin’s administration implemented for several areas in an attempt to supply safer voting options during the pandemic. Although it should have been a fairly simple process of counting these ballots through computer programming systems, there was quite a delay in getting the online polls out. The online ballots also have few ways to prove their legitimacy and have an inconsistent rate in which their votes are leaning towards Putin.
There have been several anonymous polls taken over the past few years analyzing the Kremlin party and Putin's presidency. The most recent of the polls concluded that there was only a 30% percent approval rate of his terms, and yet somehow he won with a 50% vote, over 10% higher than his election of 2016. By winning with a 50% majority vote, this also means that he won with a supermajority, allowing for him to change the constitution, dominate committees, and ram through laws with very little opposition or debate on the matter. There have also been other incredibly sketchy occurrences dealing with those who disagree from the United Russia party. “Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in jail. His electoral network was declared an extremist organization in June and effectively banned. Its leaders, other opposition figures, human rights activists, human rights lawyers and independent journalists have been arrested or fled the country.”
These are all signs of a democratic downfall, and the public says that there is little hope for change of the dictatorship like rule of the Kremlin party anytime soon. An American reporter writes, “We call upon Russia to honor its international obligations to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to end its pressure campaign on civil society, the political opposition, and independent media,” and one can only hope change is enacted sooner rather than later.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/europe/russia-election-analysis/index.html
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