Vladimir Putin is coasting to a first round election victory with over 60% of the vote in early returns. There are widespread protests of voter fraud, and instances of what Russians refer to as "Carousel voting" where busloads of stooges go from polling place to polling place to vote in mass. In order to counter such claims many voting station installed web cams to show that what was going on there was legitimate.
Opposition leaders in Russia are questioning the legitimacy of the election but Putin may have won his third term fair and square. Under Putin, Russia emerged as the 6th largest economy by PPP and the economy grew robustly. Russia’s formal accession to the WTO will make the Russian economy more competitive and a majority of Russian voters approve his job performance. Moreover, the fact that protest rallies are being reported in the media indicates that Russia is more democratic than its image abroad.
78.51% of Russian citizens residing in the U.S. presidential elections in Russia voted for Putin. Nearly 4 out of 5 Russian living in the U.S. said "yes" to Putin. Putin said at a rally attended by more than 110,000 people: "We won in an open, fair fight. We won today because of the overwhelming support of the overwhelming majority of our voters - have won a clear victory. We will work honestly and hard. We will achieve success, and we encourage all unite around the interests of our people and our homeland. I promised you that we will win. we won! Glory to Russia!
I'm sure the Hussein is taking notes on how best to steal an election. He is going to need it later this year.
The observer from the United States, James Jatras "I was an observer at the elections in Chelyabinsk. And I do not see anything that might look unusual to voting procedure. I've seen monitors, boxes, talked with other observers from various parties and candidates. And they all spoke very positively about how process is organized. And they found no violations. " "And the cameras I have not seen in the elections in the United States. And I have not seen where foreign observers. I've never seen one Russian observer in American elections," - said James Jatras. The observer from the United States by Anthony Salvia "I came to Russia as an observer and was in Nizhny Novgorod during the election day. Attended the polls - about seven in the city and suburbs. All treatments were very well organized, very professional, very high. On it was a very nice to see. Many procedures are organized better than in the U.S., for example, the system scans. you scan ballot and throw in the ballot box. and to challenge the results, which shows the scanner, you can take the newsletter and check them one by one. In the U.S., you can not do that. " [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5rsOJWTshc&t=1m14s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5rsOJWTshc&t=1m14s[/ame]
