Voting starts in Russian election

There are almost 100,000 polling stations across the country Voting has begun in Russia's general election, with citizens in the far east of the country going to the polls long before they open in the west. Eleven parties are competing for places in the lower house, the Duma - though it is not clear how many will win the 7% needed to qualify for seats. Opposition parties have accused the government of stifling their campaigns and of intimidation. Independent monitors say their attempts to observe the poll have been hampered. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has abandoned its plans to send a big team of election observers to Russia after accusing the Russian government of imposing unacceptable restrictions and of deliberately delaying the issuing of visas. Russia has denied the claims. Only a much smaller group of MPs from the OSCE's parliamentary assembly will be in attendance. MAIN RIVAL PARTIES United Russia Communist Party of Russia Liberal Democratic Party of Russia A Fair Russia (Mothers/Pensioners/Life) Yabloko Union of Right Forces Q&A: Russian election That means just 400 foreign monitors will cover 95,000 polling stations. The British ambassador in Moscow, Tony Brenton, told the BBC he said it appeared there had been what he called imbalances and misuses of the administration in this election. The largest party in the Duma going into the elections is United Russia, and it will be hoping to maintain its dominance against the challenge from the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Yabloko party and others. Russian President Vladimir Putin is at the top of the United Russia party list - opening the possibility that he could keep a grip on power from parliament even after stepping down as president next year. Within Russia the media is banned from referring to parties, politicians, policies or opinion polls for the duration of the election. Far east start Voting began at 0800 on Sunday (2000 GMT, Saturday) in Russia's far easterly region of Kamchatka, about 6,000km (3,700 miles) east of Moscow. Sailors in Vladivostok were among the first to vote Voting is not set to end until 22 hours later, when polls are due to close in the enclave of Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea, 11 time zones to the west. Sailors in the far east port of Vladivostok waited at a polling station to cast their votes on Sunday morning. "I'll vote for United Russia," Vladimir Babikov, 19, told the AFP news agency. "They've done a good job, everything is getting better." In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Alexei Gutkin, a 42-year-old engineer, voted for the centre-right Union of Right Forces. "United Russia is like a return to the Communist Party," he said. "I remember that time well." 'Farce' The run-up to the vote has been marred by increasing allegations that the poll could be rigged. In pictures@ Siberia votes Opposition rallies have been broken up, parties have complained that their headquarters have been raided, and that state media has been a mouthpiece for the government. The former chess grandmaster and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov has dismissed the elections as a "farce". His political grouping is one of several to be barred from contesting the poll. More than 100 million voters are eligible to cast ballots at 95,000 polling stations across the country, with about 450,000 police officers reportedly on duty to ensure order.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7123387.stm

Voting has begun in Russia's general election, with citizens in Siberia going to the polls long before they open in the west. of the country

 

About 109 million voters across Russia's 11 different time zones are to cast ballots over a 22-hour period.

 

Intrepid election workers have been delivering ballot boxes to polling stations in Siberia, some 4000km east of Moscow.

 

Reindeer herders, sailors, soldiers and villagers have been turning out to cast their vote.

 

In the remote village of Shor-Taiga, the ballot box was taken house-to-house.

 

Voting in one polling station was accompanied by the sound of the accordion.

 

 

Putin in TV appeal for his party

President Putin has enjoyed positive coverage on the main channels President Vladimir Putin has urged Russians to vote for his United Russia party in Sunday's parliamentary election, in a televised address. "I ask you to come to the polls and vote for United Russia," he said. President Putin, who cannot run for a third term in presidential elections next March, tops the list of United Russia's candidates. Mr Putin said Sunday's result would "set the tone" for the March election. United Russia is expected to triumph. He said a vote for United Russia would ensure "stability and continuity", rather than the turmoil of the 1990s. "We cannot allow the return to power of those who once tried but failed to rule the country," he said, referring to the liberal politicians who advised his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. He said his opponents "want to reshape Russia's development plans and change the course supported by our nation, bringing back the times of humiliation, dependence and disintegration". Liberal opposition parties accuse the Kremlin of harassment and domination of the mass media. Police have broken up several opposition rallies, detaining the organisers. One of them, former chess champion Garry Kasparov, was freed from jail on Thursday. He had been held since Saturday, when police broke up a protest rally he was attending. Mr Kasparov said he was not given access to a lawyer, and warned that Russia was sliding into dictatorship. "Such a huge number of violations shows that our authorities have assumed a fundamentally new quality... "The blank cheque that Putin has unfortunately received from the heads of democratic states at the numerous G7 meetings that he attended has apparently convinced the Russian authorities that they can behave totally shamelessly. "We are in effect entering a very dangerous period because it is not clear where they will stop. They have already started sorting things out inside Putin's circle; the legal situation after 2 December is totally unclear," Mr Kasparov said.