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Russian Presidential Elections
    Conclusions made in the observation made by GIAI

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Russia 2000
Presidential Elections

Final Report

Conclusions of the Observation realised by IGIA (GIAI) with the sponsorship of the www.academico.net

Russian Presidential Elections

The beginning of democracy in Russia and the 'virtual elections'


   The Investigation Group on International Affairs - IGIA - in co-operation with the site www.academico.net and the Magazine Via Universitária and Internacional by invitation of the IDC (International Discussion Club - Russia) and the Russian CEC (Central Election Comission) sent during ten days an observer to Russia, which was the only non-governmental portuguese observer. The curiosities observed by us about the russian electoral system, we think it is interesting to divulge them.

   During ten days we had many contacts, we participated in many press conferences of the candidates, several meetings with russian people, seminars, briefings and debriefings of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to which was given the final conclusions of the observation of our team (a portuguese and a swedish) in St. Petersburg, so the OSCE in Moscow could communicate the observations before the final elections results came out.

   We visited the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the naval base of the russian fleet on the Baltic, in Kronstad (city closed to foreigners until last year).

______

   March 26th was the day of the so called 'virtual elections' in Russia, to the Presidency of the super-presidential State called Russian Federation, the biggest country in the world and a military super-power.

   Virtual because people knew already who would win, but it doesn't mean that the elections were useless.

   Putin, a name that some months ago no one knew, but in elections time everybody knew it and the majority maybe supported, perhaps because it was a small majority (52,54%) and if it was achieved in a democratic way that's the question we need to answer, because of all the facts we'll talk ahead.

   Without a candidate that could face him, after the desistance of the former Prime-Minister Primakov (who supported Putin in this elections), victory looked secure if not in the first, than in the second round. So secure that Putin even refused the open confrontation in debates on TV with his opositors, not giving the chance for them to show themselves.

   He didn't made almost no campaign, some open letters with Putin's photo were given away to people on the Moscow underground, as well as in other places.

   It was the war in Tchetchenia or 'anti-terrorist operation' (russian version), who put Putin on the top of popularity, now Russia has a common and identified enemy. But all the war was 'forgotten' during the campaign, just talks about the injured soldiers returning home, but no images of the conflict. Russia has a strange amnesia with this conflict, they say the 'rebels terrorists' want to steal and have russians working for them in Tchetchenia.

   This was the final act so Russia put an end to the secession from over 89 of its regions.

   The centre (Moscow) showed is strenght and now the new boss promises to attack corruption and the oligarchs who control the russian economy, showing the strength of Moscow and not the weak Kremlin like in Yeltsin's days. It set back the territorial disintegration process that Russia was going through with the regions being away from the central power and even stopped sending their taxes.

   Putin gave the chance to the army to get its pride back and to have it by its side (in Russia nothing is possible without the army's support). But with such a support, the army is side by side with the new President and in the day after Putin's victory three intercontinental missiles (without nuclear capacity) were sent to celebrate that victory, showing to the USA that Russia is back.

   Nothing will be like it used to be.

   With a very weak Duma, generalised corruption, economics controlled by half a dozen of oligarchs (40% of the russian exports are in the hands of 6 men) and a super-presidential system, it's different for the State to be strong.

   'I want a strong State', Putin's words, a sentence that scares the West. The West will have to think on Russia as a police State like the USA and also to invest there.

   In a country where on a political level everything goes very fast, there aren't real parties, loyalty to a party doesn't exist.

   With a wide legislation the application of the rules isn't effective, that happens in the electoral system. The electoral legislation has democratic principles due to the reformulation so Russia could have democratic elections (something new in the country), having the opportunity to achieve democracy.

   Curiosities

   Vote against all - possibility that the voters have to choose this modality if they don't agree with none of the candidates. If this modality wins in that area, elections must be repeated and candidates will have to be new ones and, many times this option wins.

Secret vote - the most 'funny' factor, because it's not secret at all. There's the family vote in full rooms, even if there are proper places for people to vote in secret, but most of the voters vote in open, they ask eachothers in who to vote and they all vote the same, but the law don't accepts this.

   Mobile vote - possibility to sick and old people to vote at home, however the control of that mobile box is very weak, there is the possibility to force people to vote.

   Access to free and impartial information for the voters - not much information was given, Putin didn't do debates on TV, lack of transparency in the media which isn't independent and it's censured.

   Forbidden to ask to vote - no one can ask voters to go and vote, but they can campaign for the vote against all.

   Putin himself wasn't nominated by it's party - this shows the fragility of the parties and the strong pressure made by Kremlin at the local entities to the implementation of a party in less than two months.

   Boxes in military places - difficult for foreigner observers to follow the elections, more pressure during the voting process.

   Far away regions - in far away regions that have strong governors things are very difficult: there are threats to the population in order for them being without electricity if they won't vote, no telephones (only two at the administration services; deans of universities telling students to vote (at least 60% had to vote for Putin), people threatened of becoming without jobs if not voting, etc...

   Observations:

   The presence of international observers means a bigger credibility of the democratic process. In this elections there were 1001 observers who had has a base for their work 94 000 places of vote in all Russia, which is not possible. One million russians took part in the electoral process.

   There was transparency and big efforts in general made by the working commissions and a good reception by the local commissions to the observers, but there were also some exceptions.

   During the electoral process not many problems occurred, however when the counting of the votes began things started to step out of line and getting far from the democratic way.

   In spite of the local committees were in a general way open and professionals, the final work was quick and they didn't follow the rules: invalidate the vote cards before counting the votes, etc..

   All the results were send to the territorial committees and there it's impossible to the observers to get access, it means it's easy for them to 'change' the information and results of the elections... this might have happened this time.

   Observers presents at the Duma election last December 1999 said those elections went much better, but they add that the law is slowly being respected in Russia, a country that walks towards democracy.

   Yours Sincerely,

    Paulo Eduardo Parreira

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Useful Links

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  GIAI – http://come.to/giai – giai@mail.telepac.pt

  IDC – http://wwwidc.cis.lead.org

Via Internacional - http://nos.viainternacional.com

INternacional, a revista de assuntos internacionais em português – http://welcome.to/internacional

   Academico (the youth and high education search engine in portuguese) - http://www.academico.net

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Russia Today - the best information about Russia

CNN Special Edition - Elections

The St. Petersburg Times

The Moscow Times

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IFES - ElectionGuide.Org

ODIHR - Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights

ODIHR Election Handbook - Cover

OSCE

IDEA - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES)

IDEA - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

Russian Federation State Duma Elections - Final Report

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.	Russia 2000 Presidential Elections Final Report Conclusions of the Observation realised by IGIA (GIAI) with the sponsorship of the www.academico.net Russian Presidential Elections The beginning of democracy in Russia and the 'virtual elections' The Investigation Group on International Affairs - IGIA - in co-operation with the site www.academico.net and the Magazine Via Universitária and Internacional by invitation of the IDC (International Discussion Club - Russia) and the Russian CEC (Central Election Comission) sent during ten days an observer to Russia, which was the only non-governmental portuguese observer. The curiosities observed by us about the russian electoral system, we think it is interesting to divulge them. During ten days we had many contacts, we participated in many press conferences of the candidates, several meetings with russian people, seminars, briefings and debriefings of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to which was given the final conclusions of the observation of our team (a portuguese and a swedish) in St. Petersburg, so the OSCE in Moscow could communicate the observations before the final elections results came out. We visited the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the naval base of the russian fleet on the Baltic, in Kronstad (city closed to foreigners until last year). ______ March 26th was the day of the so called 'virtual elections' in Russia, to the Presidency of the super-presidential State called Russian Federation, the biggest country in the world and a military super-power. Virtual because people knew already who would win, but it doesn't mean that the elections were useless. Putin, a name that some months ago no one knew, but in elections time everybody knew it and the majority maybe supported, perhaps because it was a small majority (52,54%) and if it was achieved in a democratic way that's the question we need to answer, because of all the facts we'll talk ahead. Without a candidate that could face him, after the desistance of the former Prime-Minister Primakov (who supported Putin in this elections), victory looked secure if not in the first, than in the second round. So secure that Putin even refused the open confrontation in debates on TV with his opositors, not giving the chance for them to show themselves. He didn't made almost no campaign, some open letters with Putin's photo were given away to people on the Moscow underground, as well as in other places. It was the war in Tchetchenia or 'anti-terrorist operation' (russian version), who put Putin on the top of popularity, now Russia has a common and identified enemy. But all the war was 'forgotten' during the campaign, just talks about the injured soldiers returning home, but no images of the conflict. Russia has a strange amnesia with this conflict, they say the 'rebels terrorists' want to steal and have russians working for them in Tchetchenia. This was the final act so Russia put an end to the secession from over 89 of its regions. The centre (Moscow) showed is strenght and now the new boss promises to attack corruption and the oligarchs who control the russian economy, showing the strength of Moscow and not the weak Kremlin like in Yeltsin's days. It set back the territorial disintegration process that Russia was going through with the regions being away from the central power and even stopped sending their taxes. Putin gave the chance to the army to get its pride back and to have it by its side (in Russia nothing is possible without the army's support). But with such a support, the army is side by side with the new President and in the day after Putin's victory three intercontinental missiles (without nuclear capacity) were sent to celebrate that victory, showing to the USA that Russia is back. Nothing will be like it used to be. With a very weak Duma, generalised corruption, economics controlled by half a dozen of oligarchs (40% of the russian exports are in the hands of 6 men) and a super-presidential system, it's different for the State to be strong. 'I want a strong State', Putin's words, a sentence that scares the West. The West will have to think on Russia as a police State like the USA and also to invest there. In a country where on a political level everything goes very fast, there aren't real parties, loyalty to a party doesn't exist. With a wide legislation the application of the rules isn't effective, that happens in the electoral system. The electoral legislation has democratic principles due to the reformulation so Russia could have democratic elections (something new in the country), having the opportunity to achieve democracy. Curiosities Vote against all - possibility that the voters have to choose this modality if they don't agree with none of the candidates. If this modality wins in that area, elections must be repeated and candidates will have to be new ones and, many times this option wins. Secret vote - the most 'funny' factor, because it's not secret at all. There's the family vote in full rooms, even if there are proper places for people to vote in secret, but most of the voters vote in open, they ask eachothers in who to vote and they all vote the same, but the law don't accepts this. Mobile vote - possibility to sick and old people to vote at home, however the control of that mobile box is very weak, there is the possibility to force people to vote. Access to free and impartial information for the voters - not much information was given, Putin didn't do debates on TV, lack of transparency in the media which isn't independent and it's censured. Forbidden to ask to vote - no one can ask voters to go and vote, but they can campaign for the vote against all. Putin himself wasn't nominated by it's party - this shows the fragility of the parties and the strong pressure made by Kremlin at the local entities to the implementation of a party in less than two months. Boxes in military places - difficult for foreigner observers to follow the elections, more pressure during the voting process. Far away regions - in far away regions that have strong governors things are very difficult: there are threats to the population in order for them being without electricity if they won't vote, no telephones (only two at the administration services; deans of universities telling students to vote (at least 60% had to vote for Putin), people threatened of becoming without jobs if not voting, etc... Observations: The presence of international observers means a bigger credibility of the democratic process. In this elections there were 1001 observers who had has a base for their work 94 000 places of vote in all Russia, which is not possible. One million russians took part in the electoral process. There was transparency and big efforts in general made by the working commissions and a good reception by the local commissions to the observers, but there were also some exceptions. During the electoral process not many problems occurred, however when the counting of the votes began things started to step out of line and getting far from the democratic way. In spite of the local committees were in a general way open and professionals, the final work was quick and they didn't follow the rules: invalidate the vote cards before counting the votes, etc.. All the results were send to the territorial committees and there it's impossible to the observers to get access, it means it's easy for them to 'change' the information and results of the elections... this might have happened this time. Observers presents at the Duma election last December 1999 said those elections went much better, but they add that the law is slowly being respected in Russia, a country that walks towards democracy. Yours Sincerely, Paulo Eduardo Parreira
.	.
.	Useful Links
.	GIAI – http://come.to/giai – giai@mail.telepac.pt IDC – http://wwwidc.cis.lead.org Via Internacional - http://nos.viainternacional.com INternacional, a revista de assuntos internacionais em português – http://welcome.to/internacional Academico (the youth and high education search engine in portuguese) - http://www.academico.net
.	Russia Today - the best information about Russia CNN Special Edition - Elections The St. Petersburg Times The Moscow Times
.	IFES - ElectionGuide.Org ODIHR - Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights ODIHR Election Handbook - Cover OSCE IDEA - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) IDEA - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Russian Federation State Duma Elections - Final Report
.	.