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MOSCOW-Campaigning for Russia's parliamentary election ended on Friday with President Vladimir Putin's party on course for a landslide victory and opposition groups voicing fears of widespread ballot-rigging.Putin is leading the United Russia party into Sunday's vote and will use the big majority it is expected to win to cement his grip on power even after he steps down from the presidency at the end of his second term next year.Most Russian voters credit Putin with restoring stability and economic growth after the chaos of the 1990s. Opinion polls indicate his party will pick up about 60 percent of the vote on Sunday, with its nearest rivals trailing far behind.One of Putin's most vocal critics, former chess champion Garry Kasparov, said the vote would be illegitimate because, he said, the Kremlin would rig the result.Officials deny any such rigging campaign and Putin has said he expected the election to be fair and transparent.Kasparov, who served five days in prison this week for organizing an illegal demonstration, urged voters to spoil their ballot papers on Sunday in protest."We must show people that these elections are absolutely illegal and illegitimate," Kasparov told a news briefing. He is not running in the election and his opposition coalition does not have widespread support.
FOUR-PARTY PARLIAMENT?
Opinion polls show the Communists are the only party other than United Russia assured of exceeding the 7 percent threshold to qualify for seats in parliament.But Russian pollsters have said they believe last-minute shifts in voter intentions should give two other parties, the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia and the nationalist LDPR, just enough votes to sneak into parliament.
Kremlin opponents and non-governmental groups say they have registered large numbers of violations of election rules.They have reported dozens of cases of people being told by their employers to turn up for work on Sunday where managers will check if they voted, and of people being registered to vote in more than one polling station.Western governments are concerned that Europe's main ODIHR vote monitoring watchdog-widely regarded as the yardstick for elections in ex-Soviet states-will not be at the vote.The body pulled out, citing obstruction from Moscow.A senior member of the United Russia party said it was not up to foreign observers to determine if the election was fair."It is not foreign election observers who guarantee democracy in Russia, but first and foremost it is the will and political culture of the people," said Lyubov Sliska, deputy speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament. Western diplomats said the absence of ODIHR monitors would make it hard for them to assess the election."We normally wait for the ODIHR report and then align ourselves with it, but without it, we're in a difficult position," said one diplomat.United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov urged people to turn out to vote. "In effect this will be a referendum, a referendum in support of Vladimir Putin," he said.It was important that "all those who believe in the new Russia should come to the polling stations and vote for the country's future," Gryzlov said. Turnout at the last parliamentary election in 2003 was just under 56 percent.The opposition Yabloko party, one of several expected to fall short of the threshold for seats, wrapped up its campaign with a rally of about 300 people in Moscow."We live in a country without independent courts, without independent political institutions and without a free press," party leader Grigory Yavlinsky told his supporters.
As in the days of Noah....
