Putin’s Party Wins in Regional Elections Across Russia - NYTimes.com

Image via Wikipedia

By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

MOSCOW — The pro-Kremlin party United Russia swept regional elections across Russia, strengthening its political power nationwide while also dominating the voting for the Moscow city government, according to results released Monday.

Opposition leaders complained about electoral fraud, and disturbances were reported in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan because of problems at the voting sites.

Votes were held Sunday in 75 of Russia’s 83 regions, for positions varying from mayor to representative in the local legislatures. United Russia, led by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who is also the party chairman, called its nationwide success a vote of confidence in its economic policies.

“We can say that the voters of Russia, in a situation where we are battling the global economic crisis, are for stabilization of the political situation, for the right to realize those plans that have been set forth,” said Boris V. Gryzlov, chairman of the party’s Supreme Council.

Among the more than 7,000 local elections were races conducted in Chechnya, Ingushetia and other regions of the Caucasus.

Elections to the Moscow city government were the most closely watched. With 99 percent of the vote counted on Monday, United Russia, with 66 percent of the vote, was poised to win 32 of 35 seats in the legislature; the Communist Party, with 13 percent of the vote, was expected to win 3.

By contrast, the liberal party Yabloko, which has provided the most vocal opposition to Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov of Moscow, did not meet the 7 percent threshold of votes necessary for a seat.

Ilya Yashin, a former youth leader of Yabloko who joined the more radical opposition movement Solidarity, was taken off the ballot in Moscow for the city Duma, the local legislature, along with other Solidarity members, including the party’s leader, Boris Y. Nemtsov, for reported irregularities.

Mr. Yashin lamented on his blog Monday that Moscow had joined regions like the Caucasus as a place where United Russia had an unchallenged grasp on power.

Vladimir Y. Churov, chairman of the Central Election Commission, speaking to reporters on Sunday, rejected charges of electoral fraud. “Statements about mass violations, these are of course hysteria and an attempt to exert unlawful moral pressure during the counting of votes,” he said. “This is moral terror.”

Mr. Churov acknowledged but played down the extent of difficulties in Derbent, a town in Dagestan where one-third of the polling places never opened. The town’s mayor, who supports the Kremlin, won with 68 percent of the vote.

Mr. Yashin reported on his blog that about 100 activists of the Solidarity movement held a protest in central Moscow on Monday evening, claiming falsification of the Moscow election results. More than 40 people were detained by the police, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported. The Associated Press reported that police officers in riot gear broke up a small demonstration, dragging people away.