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Voters in Moscow: Although there is hardly any real opposition left, the Russian ballot is long
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
The German government is demanding clarification from Russia in view of the massive allegations of fraud in the parliamentary elections there.
There are "very serious indications from Russian opposition politicians and also from election observers" to "massive irregularities," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin.
"You have to take that seriously."
Russia finds elections "free and fair"
According to preliminary results, President Vladimir Putin's ruling party "United Russia" clearly won the election. According to the party, 49.6 percent of the votes and the large majority of the direct mandates to be awarded are sufficient for at least 315 of the 450 seats in parliament. "United Russia" would thus hold the two-thirds majority, which is important for constitutional amendments.
Despite massive allegations of manipulation, the Kremlin sees no reason to doubt the legality of the parliamentary elections in Russia.
The vote was "free and fair," said spokesman Dmitri Peskow in Moscow, according to the Interfax agency.
"In this regard, we rate the election quite positively." The independent election observers, however, listed thousands of violations.
The team of the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny spoke of the "dirtiest election" in years.
The election was massively falsified, said Navalny's allies.
In particular, they referred to repeated delays in the release of the electronic voting results in Moscow.
The election observation organization Golos also registered more than 4,900 reports of election fraud.
99.6 percent of the vote for Chechnya in power
According to state media reports, Chechnya’s ruler Ramzan Kadyrov will receive more than 99 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections in Russia. As the news agency Ria Novosti reported, after counting a good half of the votes cast, 99.6 percent went to Kadyrov. Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya in an authoritarian manner since 2007, is considered a confidante of Putin.
The federal government is also concerned "that there has really been a loss of social diversity and democratic participation in the run-up to the Duma elections because of the increasing pressure on the opposition and civil society," said government spokesman Seibert.
In the past few months, the Russian authorities have taken massive action against the opposition, and many opponents of the government are behind bars or have fled abroad.
muk / AFP / dpa