Russian Election Commission praised for transparency of presidential vote

The international observers who monitored Sunday’s Russian presidential election commended the transparency and good organisation of the voting process, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, CEC member Vasily Likhachev met with observers from France, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, and the Netherlands to discuss the election.

“The observers who were present on election day at different regions of Russia have acknowledged the good organisation of the election campaign in the country and commended the transparency of the voting procedure,’’ Likhachev said.

The CEC official also presented to the observers the election results taken from the polling places that were set up in 145 foreign countries, and spoke about the work being done by the commission’s working group on campaigning disputes.

According to the latest information provided by the CEC, Russian President Vladimir Putin won the election with 76.68 per cent of the vote with 99.94 per cent of ballots having been counted.

Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin is second with about 11.8 per cent of the vote, while head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky has come in third place with around 5.7 per cent of the vote.

Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak is in fourth place with 1.68 per cent of the vote, followed by Yabloko party candidate Grigory Yavlinsky with 1.05 per cent.

The remaining three candidates, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin, Sergey Baburin from the All-People’s Union party, and Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov, each received less than 1 per cent of the vote.