Thousands of violations reported before election
In an increasingly tense political situation, Russians on Sunday cast their votes in the State Duma elections.
Russian President and head of the United Russia party list Dmitry Medvedev in an address today urged Russians to go to the polls. –Elections are one of the highest expressions of democracy, and your personal participation will decide the composition of the new Russian parliament, Medvedev stressed, a press release reads.
However, Medvedev and his United Russia party is under growing pressure from an electorate which increasingly is turning skeptical towards the current Russian power establishment. Although still at a high level compared with most other countries, the approval ratings of both the president, the prime minister and the ruling United Russia party have dropped to a historical low.
The pressure sensed by the power establishment is reflected in the United Russia´s increasingly desperate election campaign. As previously reported, the party is caught in several serious violations of election laws.
In Murmansk, like in a number of other regions, the party is reported to offer people 1500 RUB for their vote. In addition, another 250 RUB is offered for the recruitment of a friend. In the same region, the deputy leader of the regional Election Commission is allegedly ready to reward her staff for contributing to good election results for the party. Marina Zhdanova promises her subordiates the reward if the United Russia wins more than 50 percent of the votes with a voter turnout of at least 70 percent.
Read also: United Russia turns up the heat in Murmansk
According to Golos, the only independent election monitoring group in Russia, thousands of violations are being registered all over the country. A Map of Violations, a project organized by Golos together with newspaper Gazeta.ru, shows that Murmansk are among the regions in Northwest Russia with the highest number of registered violations.
In all of Russia, more than 6000 violations have been reported.
Paradoxically, Golos was itself this week charged by Russian prosecutors for violating federal election law. The organizations is now fighting for survival in court, a press release from the group reads.
Similarly, Russian media is under increasing pressure. The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in a press release “firmly condemns the avalanche of arbitrary censorship measures that Russia’s federal and local authorities have been adopting ahead of the 4 December parliamentary elections and the presidential elections scheduled for 4 March.” According to the organization, the authorities are targeting both the traditional media and the Internet.
Read also: United Russia´s man in Murmansk
United Russia has a clear lead on the polls. Still, several studies indicate a significantly lower level of support compared with the State Duma elections in 2007. Then, then party won more than 64 percent of the votes. Some studies now shows a support of barely 50 percent. Northwest Russia was in 2007 the region with the generally lowest level of United Russia support. Sankt Petersburg and the Nenets AO were the only regions with less than 51 percent support. Also Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Oblasts were among the weakest for the party.
