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Parliamentary and local elections in the world’s largest country, spanning 11 time zones, begin at 8 p.m. on Friday. Thus, while Muscovites prepared to sleep, the inhabitants of the Far Eastern Chukchi Autonomous District and Kamchatka Province prepared to vote.
“Let’s get started! – Ela Pamfilova, Head of the Central Election Commission, announced the live broadcast.” We are very happy!
The election campaign period was overshadowed by pressure on independent media and the silencing of dissenting voices that began with the arrest in January of Alexei Navaln, Vladimir Putin’s most famous critic.
United Russia, which supports the president, is projected to retain a majority in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, but the party’s popularity ratings were low a few days before voting began.
During the vote, lawmakers will be elected to the 450-seat State Duma, where United Russia currently has 334 seats.
The election period was overshadowed by unprecedented pressure on independent media and the silencing of dissenting voices, which began with the arrest in January of Putin’s most famous critic, Alexei Navaln.
Many Russian voters are frustrated by declining revenues and did not intend to vote, but Putin called for a “strong” parliament.
“I look forward to your responsible, balanced and patriotic civic stance,” Putin said in a video, urging voters to support parliamentarians who would work in the interest of “all citizens.”
The 68-year-old leader is currently isolating himself after the Kremlin reported a COVID-19 outbreak this week in the vicinity of the head of state. Putin canceled all personal events after dozens of people tested COVID-19 in their immediate surroundings.
Imprisonment request
In a statement from prison, Navaln called on Russians to shake off apathy and vote to remove Kremlin-supporting candidates.
“Isn’t it interesting to try?” He asked on Instagram, adding that even in prison he does not lose optimism, so he urges all Russians not to lose it.
“I really don’t think I can change anything,” said the 45-year-old opponent, who survived his hair last year after poisoning himself with the nerve-paralyzing substance Novičiok. Blame the Kremlin for his poisoning.
Putin, the country’s most vocal critic of Putin, is serving a prison sentence on fraud charges in a previous case, and his organizations have been banned this year.
Navaln’s allies were not allowed to run for public office, so before the elections, his team campaigned for the so-called “smart voting” strategy and supporting the candidates most likely to topple Russia. United.
Most of the 225 candidates called by Navaln’s allies on Wednesday are on the Communist Party’s list.
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked dozens of Navaln-related websites, as well as the Smart Voting website of Navaln allies, and has urged Google and Apple to remove the Smart Voting device. from their stores.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the creators of the Navaln app had ties to the Pentagon. Last week, the State Department summoned the US ambassador to the country, John Sullivan, to “intervene in the elections” of the US tech giants.
Before the elections, the popularity of “United Russia” was around 30 percent, according to polls by the state public opinion research institute VTsIOM. This is 10 points less than during the last elections to the State Duma in 2016.
But United Russia is projected to retain a two-thirds majority in the Duma, enough to change the constitution. Last year, using this, reforms were carried out that allowed V. Putin to extend his term until 2036.
Voting online and in person will take place over three days. As explained by the organizers of the process, the objective is to limit the risk of voters becoming infected with the coronavirus.
The opposition says several days of voting give officials more opportunities to falsify the results.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) announced in August that it would not send observers to observe the Russian elections due to limits set by Moscow.
“Unlikely protests”
The election campaign was bleak and the vote itself, according to critics, is practically an automatic approval of Putin’s allies.
Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow, said the Kremlin needed a convened parliament before Putin’s current term ends in 2024.
Allegations of manipulation during the 2011 parliamentary elections sparked large demonstrations, but this time political observers are not expecting protests.
“After the Duma elections, protests are unlikely because the opposition and civil society are demoralized,” Kolesnikov wrote. – The strict measures of the regime will be [dar] more strict “.
In addition to United Russia, 13 other parties are participating in the elections.
225 of the 450 members of the State Duma are elected on the basis of party lists and the rest in single-member districts.
More than 108 million people have the right to vote in these elections. voters in Russia and another 2 million. abroad.
Russian passport holders in Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula in Moscow and two separatist-controlled pro-Russian regions in eastern Ukraine are eligible to vote.
Dozens of Russian regions also vote in local elections, including elections for parliaments and regional governors.
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