REPORT CLAIMS RUSSIA’S COMMUNIST PARTY WON 2011 POLLS
02:14 14/03/2013
MOSCOW, March 14 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) – The announcement
of a report casting fresh doubt on the results of Russia’s 2011
parliamentary polls drew a dismissive response from the pro-Kremlin
ruling party and the country’s top election official on Wednesday,
while also causing a flurry of speculation about motives, as the study
reportedly emerged from a think-tank headed by an official close to
President Vladimir Putin.
“The officially announced results are unreliable. United Russia did not
take first place,” Stepan Sulakshin, the author of the Moscow-based
Governance and Problem Analysis Center’s report, told the RBK Daily
newspaper in comments published late on Tuesday. “The Communist Party
took first place.”
Sulakshin said the United Russia party had gained 20-25 percent
of the vote at the 2011 State Duma polls, compared to the official
figure of 49 percent, while the Communists had gained 25-30 percent,
significantly more than the 19 percent announced by election officials.
Sulakshin could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. A spokesperson
at the think-tank, where is he is director, said he was “on a business
trip,” and no one else at the center could comment on the report,
which has not been released to the public. The Kommersant newspaper
said the report came out of a seminar that took place in the fall of
2012, and its findings were based on “mathematical” methods.
Widespread allegations of vote fraud in favor of then Prime Minister
Putin’s United Russia party at the December 4, 2011 parliamentary
elections triggered the largest anti-government demonstrations since
the fall of the Soviet Union.
Unlikely Critic
The think-tank responsible for the potentially explosive report is
run by an unlikely government critic: Russian Railways chief Vladimir
Yakunin, an alleged former KGB officer widely seen as a member of
Putin’s inner circle.
However, a source within Russian Railways told RIA Novosti on Wednesday
that Yakunin had not been involved in the drawing-up of the report. The
source was unable to say why news of the report had only been made
public more than a year after the elections, but denied it was part
of a rumored Kremlin plan to call snap parliamentary polls.
Russia’s respected Kommersant newspaper said earlier this year, citing
United Russia sources, that the Kremlin could disband parliament –
hit by a number of alleged corruption scandals involving lawmakers
in recent months – in a bid to save Putin’s declining ratings.
Putin stepped down as head of United Russia last May, when he handed
over stewardship of the party to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. But
commentators suggest he remains closely linked in the eyes of the
public to the party, which was successfully branded “the party of
crooks and thieves” by opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny.
An opinion survey released earlier this week by the IA Rex pollster
found that that in a survey of 396 political analysts, 22.5 percent
believed in the likelihood of early elections to the State Duma,
while a similar proportion did not rule out the scenario.
Other political analysts suggested on Wednesday the report had been
issued in a bid to differentiate Putin from United Russia in the eyes
of the electorate.
“There are a group of zealous guys in that center who believe it is
necessary to distance Putin from United Russia – to deflect everything
negative onto the party,” respected political analyst Evgeniy Minchenko
told Kommersant.
Lilia Shibanova, head of the independent election watchdog Golos,
speculated the report could be part of what she dubbed “Kremlin games”
that could see the creation of a new pro-Kremlin party to replace
the increasingly discredited United Russia.
Political Reaction
“The data in the report have been plucked from thin air,” a senior
United Russia official, Konstantin Mazurevsky, told RIA Novosti. “They
don’t match the analytical data. Enough other elections have been held
since then, including regional ones, whose results have answered any
questions and disprove the report.”
The head of Russia’s Central Elections Commission, Vladimir Churov –
dubbed “the wizard” by opposition figures after the 2011 polls over
allegations he had conjured up an unlikely victory for United Russia
– also hit out at the report, suggesting its author seek psychiatric
assistance. Churov, an unabashed Kremlin loyalist, has frequently said:
“Churov’s first law is – Putin’s always right.”
Reaction from the Communist Party was surprisingly muted. There was
no reaction from veteran party head, Gennady Zyuganov. Calls to the
party’s press office went unanswered as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Vadim Solovyev, the Communist Party’s top lawyer, told journalists
the party had also estimated it took around 30 percent of the vote
at the 2011 polls. He said the party had not contested the results in
court because it did not believe its appeal would get a fair hearing.
The Kremlin has not officially commented on the news of the report,
but an administration source told RIA Novosti that anyone dissatisfied
with the election results should file complaints with the courts,
and “not write reports.”
“The courts have frequently simply rejected complaints about the
December 2011 polls,” noted Shibanova, the head of Golos.
Putin’s Victory ‘Legitimate’
The report apparently also examined Putin’s victory in presidential
elections last March, which saw him return to the Kremlin for a
controversial third term after a four-year hiatus as prime minister.
“Putin, unlike United Russia, is legitimate,” Sulakshin told RBK.
“Fifty-two percent voted for him – zealous officials handed him another
13 percent.” Putin took 63.6 percent of the vote at last year’s polls,
but Sulakshin did not explain the mathematical discrepancy.
“Putin needed an honest victory,” he added. “And so he gave the order
to carry out honest elections.”
Anything over 50 percent of the vote at the March 2012 elections
would have been enough to hand Putin victory in the first round.