“Election” of president Medvedev
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8:05, — Politics
The presidential electoral campaign finished in Russia. Russian first deputy premier Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory in the polls. According to data of the Central Election Commission, for 10.00 Dmitry Medvedev is “winning” the presidential election with 70.23 per cent of the vote.
The Central Election Commission has counted 99.45 per cent of ballots, its head Vladimir Churov said. Leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov is the second with 17.76 per cent, followed by leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinvsky with 9.37 per cent of the vote. Head of the Democratic Party of Russia Andrei Bogdanov takes the last place with 1.29 per cent of the vote. The turnout of the presidential elections on Russia is 69.65 per cent.
Zhirinovsky and Zyuganov have already declared the polls were held with numerous violations and are going to contest election results. “Such amount loutishness and rigging the ballots have never been seen. It’s a new era,” secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party Valery Rashkin said to journalists. According to Vadim Solovyov, head of legal service of the Communist Part, about 140 complaints have been sent to the Central Election Commission. According to Zhirinovsky, protocols weren’t drawn up, ballots were thrown in, people were made to vote for one of the candidates. Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party said he was going to appeal against election results to court.
Nevertheless, not waiting for the results, Medvedev and Vladimir Putin celebrated the victory on Vasilyevsky Spusk with songs of the band Lyube yesterday evening in Moscow. The gig “I’m choosing Russia” dedicated to the presidential election was visited by 35 thousand people, most of them the youth from different pro-Kremlin movements. Groups Mashina Vremeni, Bi-2 and others played to the mob.
The inauguration of the third Russian president is scheduled for May 7. Head of the administration of the Russian President Sergei Sobyanin said the present government would hardly be dismissed before the inauguration on May 7. In the turn speaker of the parliament Boris Gryzlov, answering the question about future structure of power in Russia said “there won’t be 2 per cent of power in the country.” What concerns future presidency of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin’s post of prime minister, Gryzlov emphasised that “the joint mechanism will work, as Putin said.”
Andrei Illarionov: elections are not legitimate
Election of the Russian president and its results were not legitimate. Andrei Illarionov, former economic advisor to the Russian president, senior fellow at the Cato Institute said it to Ekho Moskvy radio.
According to him, it is due to the fact that requirements, principles and criteria of the democratic society were violated, there were no conditions for democratic election, in particular, no freedom of choice and press.”
As Illarionov said, “if Bukovsky, Ryzhkov, Kasparov, Sechin, Ivanov have participated in the polls, a winner of such election would have had the right to be named legitimate.” In Illarionov’s view, Russia is “on the edge of the enormous crisis of power and the whole political system of the country.”
Illarionov said earlier, that after Putin would leave the post of Russian president, Putism, or “stable level of nationalism and aggression against the people in and beyond the country,” would continue to prevail in the country. “We are speaking about philosophy and aggression policy aimed at Russian people, Russian neighbours, other world countries,” Illarionov said. According to him, “it is not connected with a certain person, it is a policy of a group of people, organisation that has been in the country for almost a century.”
Speaking about possible changing of the political system of Russia after Dmitry Medvedev has come to power, Illarionov said he had doubts “a person who has become president is able to change the whole system.” “Not a certain person is of importance, but a corporation, consisting of more than half a million of people, or even more. It’s not important who will take the post of president. The main thing that the corporation has all power,” he added.
Opposition takes to marches
Other Russia coalition is going to hold the Marches of Dissent in Moscow and St. Petersburg today. The both events are scheduled to begin at 4pm Minsk time. But if the route in St. Petersburg is agreed, the Moscow authorities didn’t permit the event. However, the organisers are going to hold the march in Moscow. The of Other Russia leaders Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov will take part in the March of Dissent in St. Petersburg.
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