Society

18:15, 05.12.2007 | Russia

The State Duma elections in Russia's southeastern sea port of Vladivostok were conducted in line with democratic standards, Pawel Poncyljusz, an observer for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

"As far as electoral procedures are concerned, there were no violations," said Poncyljusz, who is a parliamentary member in Poland for the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. "Concerns about democratic standards were not confirmed," he said, referring to the election procedures in the city of Vladivostok. The Kremlin has been criticized by some foreign leaders, including U.S.
President George W. Bush, and foreign media for undermining the right to free speech and failing to offer a choice to voters that democratic elections imply.
During his visit in Russia, Poncyljusz met with opposition leader Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party, as well as with leaders of the two other pro-Kremlin parties, nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party and socialist Fair Russia.
"They raised some objections but about the conduct of the electoral campaign not the elections themselves," Poncyljusz said.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement on Monday that Russia's elections "were not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections."
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights (ODIHR) decided not to send international observers to monitor Russia's elections due to bureaucratic obstacles and "unprecedented restrictions," the organization said in response to a Kremlin proposal to limit the number of observers to 400 from the 1,169 level seen in previous elections.
Preliminary results indicate that President Vladimir Putin's United Russia appears to be heading for a landslide with some 64.1% of the vote with nearly 98% of ballots counted, according to Central Elections Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov. A total of four parties are set to win seats in the Duma.
According to Poncyljusz, some 110 observers for parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe and OSCE, were deployed across Russia, one of the world's largest countries at more than 17 mln square kilometers.