The Hindu : Front Page : Putin’s party set to sweep polls

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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Putin’s party set to sweep polls

Vladimir Radyuhin

President sees the elections as a referendum on his years in power

— PHOTO: AFP

HIGH STAKES: Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) and his wife Lyudmila enter a Moscow polling station on Sunday to cast their vote in the parliamentary elections.

Moscow: United Russia, the party backed by President Vladimir Putin, is set to sweep the parliamentary elections held on Sunday.

With 12 per cent of the votes counted, United Russia led with 62.8 per cent of the votes, a vast improvement on the 38 per cent it gained in the previous elections four years ago. Three other parties look likely to clear the seven per cent threshold to win seats in the 450-member State Duma (Lower House), led by the Communists with just under 11 per cent.

In these elections, the Russians voted to elect more than a new Lower House; they chose a course the country will follow in the years to come.

President Putin had turned the election into a referendum on his years in power as he prepares to step down next year. By agreeing to head the candidate list of the pro-Kremlin party, even though he is not a member, Mr. Putin staked his huge popularity, which exceeds 80 per cent, on its performance.

Boosted by Mr. Putin’s support, United Russia is expected to win a landslide. However, Mr. Putin needed a high turnout in order to reconfirm his popular mandate.

“If people vote for United Russia … this will mean that a great majority trusts me,” he had said.

Full election results will not be known till Monday, as it takes almost 24 hours for this sprawling country spanning 11 time zones to vote. Early reports suggested that the turnout exceeded 60 per cent, against 55 per cent in 2004.

Mr. Putin’s second and last term is set to expire next year, and Russians will be choosing another President in March. The 55-year-old Russian leader said he wanted to see the new President continue his policies. A vote of confidence in the election, he said, would give him “a moral right” to demand that the new government “carry out the plans we have mapped out.”

Mr. Putin said he had no plans to leave politics. “The new President will have to seek my advice,” he said. “And he will have to take into account the fact that my course is backed by a majority of the nation.”

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