An exit poll suggests that Vladimir Putin has handily won a fourth term as Russia’s president, adding six more years in the Kremlin for the man who has led the world’s largest country for all of the 21st century.
The vote Sunday was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting, but the complaints will likely do little to undermine Putin.
Putin’s main challenges in the election were to obtain a huge margin of victory in order to claim an indisputable mandate. Exit polls suggest he got more than 70 percent of the vote.
He faced seven minor candidates on the ballot. Putin’s most vehement and visible foe, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, was rejected as a candidate because he was convicted of fraud in a case widely regarded as politically motivated.
Turnout in the presidential election has exceeded 50 percent, according to the Russian Central Election Commission.
The commission says 51.9 percent of Russia’s nearly 111 million eligible voters have cast ballots as of 5 p.m. Moscow time.
Election officials say efforts to encourage a higher turnout are in line with the law. Some Russians have reported being pressured by employers to show up and vote.
Election commission chief Ella Pamfilova also says officials around the country are taking quick measures in response to claims of violations.
Independent election observers and activists have alleged numerous incidents of ballot stuffing and other irregularities in Sunday’s vote, which President Vladimir Putin is certain to win.
The commission says it is quickly responding to claims of violations in the presidential vote.
Pamfilova says “we are immediately reacting to all claims no matter where they come from.” She says officials quickly sealed a ballot box in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don where ballot stuffing was reported.
Election officials have responded similarly to allegations of ballot stuffing in the town of Lyubertsy just outside Moscow and the far eastern town of Artyom and have been looking into several other complaints.
Pamfilova’s deputy, Nikolai Bulayev, says “we are not hiding … even the smallest violations.”
Independent election observers and activists have alleged numerous incidents of ballot stuffing and other irregularities in Sunday’s vote, which President Vladimir Putin is certain to win.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he has boycotted the presidential election and is advising other Russians to do the same.
Navalny has been barred from the presidential campaign because of a criminal conviction widely seen as politically motivated. He has urged his supporters not to vote because of the absence of any real competition in Sunday’s election, which President Vladimir Putin is set to win easily.
Navalny says in a video posted on YouTube that “on election day, one should usually want to say ‘I voted,’ but in fact I’m here to say that I didn’t go to vote.”
He criticized the seven contenders challenging Putin for failing to protest ballot stuffing and other irregularities that were tainting the election, saying on his blog that “such candidates aren’t worthy of your vote.”
