It’s Putin’s poll all the way

The Russian President’s ‘United Russia’ party is the favourite to win the parliamentary elections, to be held on Sunday

MOSCOW: Final preparations were underway in Russia on Saturday for parliamentary elections expected to hand a sweeping victory to President Vladimir Putin’s party, just three months before presidential polls.

From Kamchatka to Kaliningrad, some 109 million voters are eligible to cast ballots on Sunday in Russia’s fifth parliamentary elections since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putin is standing as the lead candidate of the United Russia party and has said that a convincing victory would give him a mandate to continue playing a role in politics after he steps down in March of next year.

A former KGB officer in power since 2000, Putin has cast the elections as a referendum on his rule, saying that a vote for United Russia would safeguard the country’s oil-driven economic boom and stability.

In his final pitch to voters, Putin urged them to turn out at the polls and vote for United Russia, warning that a vote for his opponents could return the country to the “humiliation, dependency and disintegration” of the early post-Soviet years.

A campaign blackout went into effect at midnight Friday as required by law, although giant United Russia posters remain prominently displayed in Moscow while those of the 10 other parties are hard to spot.

The opposition has accused the Kremlin of suppressing debate during the campaign by dominating television coverage on state media, confiscating their election leaflets and arresting members.

Former chess champion turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov has dismissed the elections as a “farce” and warned that Putin was leading the country toward dictatorship.

After spending five days behind bars this week for taking part in an unauthorised protest against Putin, Kasparov accused the 55-year-old president of resorting to repression to cement his party’s dominance.

“Fear is the only chance this regime has to survive,” he said.

Putin and his Kremlin allies are hoping that a strong victory coupled with a high turnout at the polls will give them a free hand to lay the groundwork for the presidential vote, analysts say.

The campaign for the presidency kicked off on Wednesday with no frontrunner in sight and the clock is ticking for Putin to tip his hand before a December 23 deadline for parties to nominate their candidates for the top post.

In the final days of campaigning, Putin appeared to confirm that he would not stand in the March vote, but whether he plans to return at a later stage or anoint a successor remains unclear.

Polls show United Russia will win at least 62 per cent of the vote, with the Communist Party trailing far behind with some 12 per cent.

Already the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi has released a statement announcing that “on December 2, the Russian people chose President Putin as their national leader” and congratulating United Russia on its “overwhelming victory.”

Nashi spokeswoman Ana Gurinovich said that the statement was released because “we are convinced that they will win.”

Russian authorities and businesses meanwhile mounted a massive effort to maximise the turnout, including through SMS messages from Russia’s biggest operators encouraging mobile phone subscribers to vote.

Election watchdog organisations have voiced concern over allegations that voters have come under pressure from authorities to turn out and vote, with many told to cast ballots at their workplaces, under the watchful eye of their bosses.

Some 450,000 police officers will be on duty across the country on Sunday to ensure order as voters flock to the 95,000 polling stations set up across Russia’s 11 time zones.

Voting starts at 2000 GMT on Saturday in the far east region of Kamchatka and ends on Sunday at 1800 GMT in Kaliningrad.