Sweetastic

With 80% of polls reporting, United Russia has 63% of the vote. Three other parties met the minimum of 7% and will have seats in the new parliament. Reports put the Communist Party at 11.5%, the Liberal Democratic Party with 8.8%, and A Just Russia at 8.4%.

Communist Party workers campaigning in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

So what does this mean? It’s not quite the overwhelming win that Putin would have liked, but it won’t prevent him from using it as a mandate from the people that he should continue to lead in the government. He has hinted at his desire to become Prime Minister and who really knows what will happen next year when it comes time for him to step down. My thoughts: Putin will find/make a way to stay President. Or, after becoming Prime Minister next year he will find/make a way to get back in the presidency. Although, as Prime Minister he will still be very influential and powerful in the government, and that may be enough for him.

Opposition leaders protested the elections as unfair and vowed to conduct their own count. One independent monitoring group Golos (Voice) reported numerous violations such as:

Entering those voting for United Russia into a prize lottery, reported in St Petersburg

Transporting voters by bus between polling stations, to vote multiple times, in Moscow and St Petersburg

Opposition party observers being detained for “looking suspicious”, in Samara

Voters being given ballots already filled out for United Russia, in Pestovo

Get this:

United Russia’s leader, Boris Gryzlov, acknowledged there had been violations but dismissed them as insignificant.

“They in no way put in doubt the final result. The fact that these violations have been registered shows that we have a transparent ballot.”

Check out some of the pictures from the elections. Or an article.