As of: March 18, 2024, 7:48 p.m
By: Sonja Thomaser
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Split
Putin remains in power after the Russian election, but he is not the king of election fraud.
Other rulers achieve even better results in their manipulated elections.
Moscow - After the Russian election, unsurprisingly, the old president is also the new one: Vladimir Putin was confirmed in office, and the Russian power apparatus is celebrating Putin as the landslide winner this Monday (March 18th).
After all the ballot papers were counted, the 71-year-old, who has been in power for around a quarter of a century, was able to collect more than 74 million votes, according to the electoral commission.
The official final result is 87.28 percent for Putin – a record result.
Participation in the election was reported to be over 74 percent – also a record.
Far-reaching allegations of manipulation in elections in Russia
The election was considered completely undemocratic and there are widespread allegations of manipulation.
During the vote, for example, numerous cases were documented in which employees of state-owned companies were pressured to vote and in some cases even asked to photograph their completed ballot papers.
In advance, citizens were forced to vote.
Putin has secured at least six more years of power in Russia and, according to the constitution he himself amended, he is allowed to run again in 2030.
But despite the global outrage over this obviously manipulated and undemocratic election: Putin is still far from being the king of election fraud, despite the new record result.
Because there are some current examples of people in power who were clearly able to achieve better results in their own manipulated elections - so there is still room for improvement for Putin in 2030.
Won 88 percent of the votes in the Russian election: Vladimir Putin.
© IMAGO/Artem Priakhin
North Korea also “chooses” – only one person at a time
It's hard to believe, but elections are also taking place in North Korea.
However, the actual power structures within the country are somewhat diffuse.
Abroad, North Korea is widely viewed as a totalitarian, Stalinist dictatorship led by Kim Jong-un.
He succeeded his father as North Korea's "Supreme Leader" in 2011, making him the third member of his family dynasty to rule the country.
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The country holds largely symbolic legislative elections, where voter turnout is typically 99.99 percent and people vote "yes" or "no" on a single-candidate ballot paper.
As is typical of a totalitarian dictatorship, each candidate usually receives 100 percent of the vote in their constituency, reports the political magazine
Politico
, including Kim Jong-un in 2014 and his sister Kim Yo Jong in 2019.
Bashar al-Assad is happy about 95 percent
Bashar al-Assad has been president of Syria since 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for 30 years.
During his rule, Assad has won several overwhelming electoral victories, securing nearly 89 percent of the vote in 2014 and over 95 percent of the vote in 2021.
Of course, all in manipulated elections.
And as recently as February 2024, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev received almost 94 percent of the vote in an “election” in the South Caucasus.
Aliyev, whose country will host the UN's COP29 climate summit later this year, secured his fifth term as leader.
Azerbaijan is considered one of the least free countries in the world.
External observers said the election was marred by a crackdown on the opposition and journalists - similar to what happened in Russia.
Lukashenko is picking on Putin
And a special friend of Putin's manipulation was just as successful as the Russian president: In August 2020, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won 80 percent of the votes in the presidential election in Belarus and thus secured another mandate.
The election result sparked a wave of fruitless mass protests by pro-democracy groups across the country.
Opposition leaders call for Lukashenko's ouster.
Lukashenko had previously had opposition leader Sergei Tichanovsky, who wanted to become president of Belarus, arrested.
He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
One might suspect that Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has taken several pages from Putin's book on leadership, cracking down on the opposition and changing laws.
(sot/rtr)