Putin’s next target is the presidential election in 2018.
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“First of all it tells us that people see that the representatives of the United Russia, the leading political force, are really doing their best for the people”, Putin said.
President Vladimir Putin won the results he’d sought in Russia’s parliamentary election, with continued support for the United Russia party that puts it on course for a two-thirds majority in a vote that was created to be more free and fair than previous ballots.
“We know that life is hard for people, there are lots of problems, lots of unresolved problems”.
“I hope these results properly reflect reality and if someone has any doubts they can come to us, they are welcome”.
The party, A Just Russia, gained just over 6% of the votes.
Today, a resolution to recognize the elections to Russia’s State Duma illegitimate has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada and it will be put to vote tomorrow. All of this raises many questions about the victory of United Russia.
Turnout, however, was distinctly lower than in the last Duma election in 2011 – less than 48 percent nationwide compared with 60 percent.
“We can already say that the party got a very good result – it won”, Putin said Sunday at a joint appearance with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, United Russia’s chairman, at its headquarters in Moscow shortly after polling ended.
MOSCOW (AP) – President Vladimir Putin sees the governing party’s huge gain in parliamentary elections as a vote of confidence in his government, despite a low voter turnout which suggests broad public apathy and dismay with the political process.
Elsewhere, there were reports of serious irregularities in one Siberian region, with suggestions of “carousel” voting – people bussed around polling stations – in the city of Barnaul.
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Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that while the handling of the vote was more transparent than before, “greater space is needed for debate and civic engagement”. “Legal restrictions on basic rights continue to be a problem”. In contrast to the two previous elections, only half the seats in this election were chosen by national party list; the others were contested by single-seat districts. Putin conceded the level of participation had fallen from previous years, but said it was still “high”. If he did and won, he would be in power until 2024, longer than Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the longest-serving Soviet leader aside from Joseph Stalin. The result is something of a personal triumph for Putin, however, since votes for United Russia, controlled by the Kremlin, largely reflected how his popularity has risen since he annexed Crimea in 2014.
