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Russians vote in Sochi mayoral poll dogged by fraud claims
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| Contributor | Ralphie |
| Last Edited | Ralphie Apr 26, 2009 12:35pm |
| Category | Perspective |
| News Date | Apr 26, 2009 12:00pm |
| Description | Voters were going to the polls today in the Russian Olympic Black Sea resort of Sochi, amid allegations that the Kremlin had used fraud and dirty tricks to secure victory for its candidate.
The vote for a new Sochi mayor had become the most high-profile election battle in Russia's recent history.
Early in the contest, courts allegedly ruling at the administration's behest, barred several candidates, including Alexander Lebedev, the tycoon owner of the London Evening Standard. Writing last week in his blog, Lebedev ruefully compared the Sochi election to polls in Zimbabwe.
The two opposition candidates who remained on the ballot were democrat and Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and communist Yuri Dzaganiya. Sochi's Kremlin-controlled media had shunned both of them. Sochi TV screened a 20-minute film that claimed Nemtsov – a bitter opponent of Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin – was actually a South Korean spy.
"These aren't real elections. It's the appointment of a Kremlin candidate with a little bit of local voting," Dzaganiya told the Guardian on Friday. He added: "Our billboards get taken down in the dead of night. We can't distribute materials. I don't appear on TV." He went on: "I've never been to Zimbabwe but the comparison isn't far from the truth." Critics say Russia's federal and regional elites are indifferent to the damage the use of 'administrative resources' in the election – a euphemism for fraud – is doing to Russia's Olympic reputation and that their only concern is to ensure a proven loyalist gets the job. |
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