RUSSIA: Possible evidence of voting irregularities surface a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's election to the presidency, with video of ballot box stuffing and a witness account of so-called carousel voting
Record ID:
327751
RUSSIA: Possible evidence of voting irregularities surface a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's election to the presidency, with video of ballot box stuffing and a witness account of so-called carousel voting
- Title: RUSSIA: Possible evidence of voting irregularities surface a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's election to the presidency, with video of ballot box stuffing and a witness account of so-called carousel voting
- Date: 6th March 2012
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MARCH 4, 2012) (REUTERS) RUSSIAN CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION BUILDING EXTERIOR VARIOUS WALL OF MONITORS SHOWING POLLING STATION WEB CAMERA VIDEO PEOPLE LOOKING AT MONITORS VIDEO FROM POLLING STATIONS MEDIA AT ELECTIONS COMMISSION MONITOR READING IN RUSSIAN 'ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA' ELECTIONS COMMISION WORKERS VIDEO FROM MONITORS MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MARCH 5, 2012) (REUTERS) EUROPEAN VOTE MONITORS NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS JOURNALIST SERGEI SMIRNOV TAKING NOTES SMIRNOV'S HANDS TAKING NOTES JOURNALISTS TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) JOURNALIST SERGEI SMIRNOV, SAYING: "They explained to me that in order to receive 2,000 rubles, it was necessary for me to vote for Putin, make a tick, and photograph it and bring the ballot, and after that I will receive 2,000 rubles." PEOPLE MILLING AFTER NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) JOURNALIST SERGEI SMIRNOV, SAYING: "There were other groups. There were a lot of groups like that at the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station. And they moved around the district and voted in this way. People in my car voted according to so-called 'additional list' from companies. This is a new thing that appeared only in February, and those additional lists of voters were the main source of falsifications." OBSERVERS TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) JOURNALIST SERGEI SMIRNOV, SAYING: "Cameras and observations with the cameras had nothing to do with reality. I am absolutely sure that falsifications were made in a completely different way. The same person can come and vote in 50 polling stations and to cast his ballot there, and no one would be able to tell from his back. So he could cast his ballot at 50 polling stations." OBSERVERS TALKING JOURNALISTS SITTING NEWS CONFERENCE BREAKING UP
- Embargoed: 21st March 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Russian Federation
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8TMAHF0LO8HET1AENRNE46M9F
- Story Text: A day after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took more than 63 percent of the vote in an election that will see him return to the presidency he left in 2008, claims of voting irregularities began to surface.
Amateur video and Russian television showed video of Dagestani election commissioner Magomed Dibirov watching video from a polling station in the Russian republic where men continuously fed ballots into an electronic ballot box.
In Moscow, journalist Sergei Smirnov said a few days before Russia's presidential election, he received a phone call from a man who called himself Mikhail and offered him money in return for voting for Putin.
"They explained to me that in order to receive 2,000 rubles (around $70 USD), it was necessary for me to vote for Putin, make a tick, and photograph it and bring the ballot, and after that I will receive 2,000 rubles," Smirnov said.
The sum was promised to dozens of other young men and women who met on Sunday outside a popular fast food joint on the southwest fringe of Moscow, waiting to be taken to various polling stations in the province that rings the capital.
"There were other groups. There were a lot of groups like that at the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station. And they moved around the district and voted in this way. People in my car voted according to so-called 'additional list' from companies. This is a new thing that appeared only in February, and those additional lists of voters were the main source of falsifications," he said.
Smirnov is one of several activists who infiltrated and followed a group of what he said were "carousel" voters, as Russians call people who cast several ballots at different polling stations using documents reserved for absentee voters.
It is a practice critics say has been used to pad results for Kremlin candidates in elections since Putin came to power in 2000, including a Dec. 4 parliamentary vote in which suspicions of fraud prompted the biggest protests of his 12-year rule. Opposition politicians said Sunday's election, in which Putin won a six-year term with nearly 60 percent of the vote -enough to avoid a runoff he would have faced if he fell short of 50 percent - was no exception.
The Russian government spent 14 billion rubles ($447 million) installing web cameras broadcast to the election commission in an attempt to show transparency in the elections and and in a victory speech Putin said he had won "in an open and honest struggle".
But critics said the group Smirnov joined was just one of many instances of suspected fraud.
"Cameras and observations with the cameras had nothing to do with reality. I am absolutely sure that falsifications were made in a completely different way. The same person can come and vote in 50 polling stations and to cast his ballot there, and no one would be able to tell from his back. So he could cast his ballot at 50 polling stations," Smirnov said.
Golos, an independent vote monitoring group, published more than 3,500 reports of potential violations nationwide. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None