Moscow, Sept 20. (dpa/GNA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, cast his ballot on Friday, as voting got under way in a three-day parliamentary election, that is set to confirm the dominance of Kremlin-loyal parties in the State Duma legislature in Moscow.
Putin, who has described the election as a “collective contribution to Russia’s victory” against Ukraine, cast his vote via computer from the Kremlin. The Duma election, the first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, is seen as a referendum on the continuation of the war.
Critics had already branded the vote as unfair before it began, as the opposition has been barred from standing.
Russian opposition groups, including the recently disqualified anti-war party Yabloko, accused the authorities of electoral irregularities on Friday.
Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov, said massive pressure was being exerted on the party’s election observers, 1,000 of which are deployed across 20 regions, and called on the head of the election commission, Ella Pamfilova, to intervene.
Rybakov said observers had been denied access to polling stations in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities, despite having the right to monitor the voting process.
In Tambov, he said, all Yabloko observers were summoned by the police for questioning, and warned without cause against unlawful actions.
The Communist Party also said many of its observers had been turned away.
The banned platform ovdinfo, reported several hundred such incidents in total. According to both the portal and Yabloko’s account, workers from state institutions and enterprises were transported en masse by bus to the polling stations in several cases.
Critics assume pressure is being exerted on state employees to vote for the ruling United Russia party.
In Moscow, meanwhile, several people said they had been turned away from polling stations because, they had been automatically registered to vote online without their knowledge and therefore, had not been issued with a polling card.
Other voters reported that the online system was not working. Human rights activists repeatedly criticize online voting in Russian elections, saying it is susceptible to manipulation.
United Russia, which has governed for more than 20 years, is expecting a two-thirds majority, despite a massive economic crisis, war fatigue and public discontent.
Dozens of war veterans are standing as candidates for the party. More than 110 million voters across the world’s largest country are called upon to elect 450 deputies for the new Duma. The 10 parties on the ballot paper are all considered close to the Kremlin and support the war in Ukraine.
Alongside United Russia, four other parties loyal to the government are currently represented in parliament.
Polling stations in the Black Sea resort of Sochi had to close briefly on Friday, due to a drone alert, temporarily sending members of the election commission, voters and observers into shelters, said Mayor Andrei Proshunin.
Flight operations in the popular tourist region were also briefly suspended, before the mayor gave the all-clear shortly afterwards.
Ukraine regularly attacks Sochi and other regions in the Russian hinterland with drones as part of its resistance to the war.
A total of 244 polling stations are set to remain open in Sochi until the end of voting on Sunday.
Against Ukraine’s wishes, the election is also being held for the first time in the Russian-controlled parts of the annexed Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson.
The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed in 2014, is participating for the second time. State media showed people in the Donetsk region casting their ballots under the watchful eye of armed soldiers, prompting critics in the West to speak of intimidation at gunpoint.
Russian authorities emphasized that the soldiers were there to protect the voters.
GNA