Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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March 2, 2008

Russian Voters Choosing New President
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1B6A5C2:A6F02AD83191E160F2C553E9BC7C8FE23CF5CDEF8FC051DA& Dmitri Medvedev all
but assured victory Russians went to the polls in an election that
many say would more appropriately be called a coronation. VOA Moscow
Correspondent Peter Fedynsky reports signs of widespread rule
violations leading up to the vote and during Election Day to ensure
the victory of designated Kremlin candidate Dmitri Medvedev.

Since the announcement of the Medvedev candidacy in December,
virtually no one doubted he would win the election.







Nikolai Kudriavstev, Communist Party Observer, Election Precinct 2430
in central Moscow Nikolai Kudriavtsev, a retiree and observer
representing the Communist Party at precinct 2430 in central Moscow,
says the favorite enjoyed an unfair advantage throughout the campaign.

Kudriavtsev says many official state assets (administrative resources)
were used to push the Medvedev candidacy. But from my perspective,
says the retiree, he is not ready to be president of a country as
large as Russia.

The official assets include state run television. While the favorite
made almost no campaign appearances, he was shown nearly every day on
national news programs going about his work as first deputy prime
minister. But even Russia's head of government and cabinet members do
not receive that kind of attention, much less Medvedev's opponents -
political unknown Andrei Bogdanov, populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and
Communist Gennady Zyuganov.







Scanning Ballot at Precinct 2430 in central Moscow A young voter, who
gave her name as Rita at election precinct 2683 on Moscow's west side,
says she cast her ballot for Medvedev. Her reason for doing so
accurately coincides with countless TV news images of Medvedev the
active public servant.

I like him, says Rita. He is calm. He travels a lot and does things
you can see. He does not just talk, he acts. She notes that Medvedev
meets and talks with people, delves into their problems.

The only problem reported at Moscow precinct 2430 was a broken ballot
scanner, which was resolved by a backup machine.

But Russia's independent voter rights group, Golos, reported
widespread polling violations. These include banning the
organization's observers from election precincts across the country,
including Saint Petersburg in western Russia, Ufa in the Ural
Mountains and Astrakhan near the Caspian Sea. In the city of
Rostov-on-Don, the organization reports its monitors were physically
threatened, and 40 percent of the precincts in Moscow had no
independent observers.

Golos deputy executive director Grigori Melkoniants told VOA his
organization has received telephone calls from teachers, factory
workers, university professors and others who complain they were
forced to cast ballots. Melkoniants says pressure was applied to
increase voter turnout and to give the appearance of popular support
for the process.

Melkoniants says Golos also has reports of authorities calling people
in their homes, and using specially-designated people at polling
places to mark who voted and who did not.

There are numerous reports of people being threatened with loss of pay
and even work if they did not vote.

The secretary of the Russian Central Election Commission, Nikolai
Konkin, says Sunday's election appears to be breaking all turnout
records.







Voter Registering at Precinct 2430 in central Moscow The Interfax News
Agency quotes First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Borisov as saying
international observers have not filed any serious questions about the
voting. But the main European election observer group, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, refused to send a
delegation to Russia because it said restrictions imposed by Moscow
would prevent meaningful work.

Only about 300 international monitors were on hand to observe an
election held across Russia's 11 time zones. Two of the monitoring
groups representing the Commonwealth of Independent States and the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization ignored violations recorded by the
OSCE during Russian parliamentary elections in December.

After casting his ballot in Moscow, Dmitri Medvedev told reporters
that he feels fine and spring will soon arrive. He is expected to
assume the presidency in May.


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