Russia election: Vladimir Putin wins, exit polls say

**Dr. van Winkle** · 03-04-2012, 06:21 PM

Russia election: Vladimir Putin wins, exit polls say

Vladimir Putin leads in the first round of the Russian presidential election.

After counting 15.52% of ballot papers, the result is that the current prime minister has been supported by 61.86% of voters.

The second result, 17.76%, belongs to the leader of the Russian Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov. The Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky has won 7.93%, businessman Mikhail Prokhorov 7.57% and the leader of A Just Russia Sergey Mironov 3.69%.

These figures will become more accurate in the course of counting votes. The Central Election Committee is promising to publish complete preliminary data at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (6:00 a.m. GMT) on the 5th of March. 99.9% of ballot papers will have been processed by that time.

Over 700 foreign observers watched the voting. They did not notice any serious violations.

Official results will be announced no later than March 14.

Under Russia’s elections legislation, the winner has to score a qualified majority (50% plus any number of votes). If no one gets a simple majority, the second round is held featuring candidates who came second and third in the first round.

The elections are monitored by numerous foreign observers from the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), PACE (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly), the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and other institutions.

They are entitled to the same powers as domestic observers.

P.S. The 2012 campaign differs from the previous ones. This is the first time, that Russia’s President is being elected for a term of six years (the previous term was 4 years). The voting procedure has also been amended. Under the relevant presidential decree, all voting stations across the country (over 91,000) are equipped with CCTV (two cameras per each station) to monitor the voting and processing procedures.

Voice of Russia

Over 110,000 Putin Supporters Gather Near Moscow Kremlin

Moscow police said more than 70,000 have gathered on Manezh Square near the Moscow Kremlin for a rally to support presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, who is likely to win the elections in the first round.

Putin won close to 63.5 percent of the vote so far as ballots continue to be counted. Putin's nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, took 17.2 percent, state pollster VTsIOM said. No other candidate has so far gained more than 10 percent.

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the prime minister will arrive at the rally of his supporters later.

Police said they had to block traffic on neighboring streets as Manezh Square could not place everyone willing to express their support for the presidential forerunner. Some 15,000 people were supposed to take part in the rally.

Some of the demonstrators are holding Russian tricolor flags and monarchist white-yellow-black banners while popular singers are entertaining Putin’s supporters.

Special screens were installed on the square to show them the latest election results.

A RIA Novosti correspondent spotted many tour buses and police buses parked near Manezh Square, the Bolshoi Theater and on nearby streets.

He said that people of all ages were flocking to Manezh Square, adding that not all of them looked enthusiastic.

Some rally participants told RIA Novosti’s correspondent that they came to Manezh Square to have fun at a concert and had no idea it was a Putin support rally.

Others confirmed they voted for Putin.

One of them, 29-year old Yevgeny Fyodorov from Orenburg told RIA Novosti that he did not believe there were any falsifications.

"This is a rally for fair elections,” he said. “We should be happy that we live under a strong and capable leadership.”

Pavel Marov, 22, said he did not vote today.

"I just came to see this ridiculous sight. These people are fooled into thinking we have a democracy," he said.

Smaller rallies are also planned in other parts of the capital on Sunday evening.

RIA Novosti

Putin 'elected Russian president'

Vladimir Putin has been elected Russian president for the third time, exit polls suggest, after spending the last four years as the country's PM.

The exit polls gave Mr Putin about 60% of the vote, meaning that he should avoid a run-off with his nearest rival, Communist Gennady Zyuganov.

Officials say turnout was higher than for the last election in 2008.

Source: BBC