In Russia, an exit poll gives, unsurprisingly, the victory to Vladimir Putin, 65 , with 73.9% of the vote, another credit of 76.3%. This is much more than the 63.6% achieved in 2012. The partial results must be given during the night in the country that lives in several time zones. After counting half of the ballots, Vladimir Putin is well ahead with 75% of the vote, according to figures from the Central Election Commission.
The strong man of Russia, for more than 18 years, is thus confirmed as the inevitable president of a country which he has placed in recent years at the forefront on the international scene, at the cost of a climate of new Cold war, accentuated since the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom.
Vladimir Putin will remain in the Kremlin until 2024.
A sign of “trust” and “hope” of the Russians
In front of hundreds of his supporters gathered in central Moscow on Sunday night, he said about his victory: “I see the trust and hope of our people, we will work just as hard, equally responsible and in an effective way. I see the recognition that a lot of things have been done under very difficult conditions. ”
“We are going to think about the future of our great homeland and our children. We are dedicated to success!”, Also assured the Russian president. “It is very important that we keep this unity, this unity is necessary to move forward,” he said, while activists chanted “Russia” or “We made the right choice” .
Before leaving the stage under applause, the master of the Kremlin led the crowd to chant: “Russia! ” , ” Russia! ”
And participation?
The Russian president, who leaves for a fourth term running until 2024, had made participation for his main battle but the opposition accuses him of having inflated by fraud to legitimize the poll without suspense.
Shortly after 5 pm, within two hours of the closure of the remaining offices, voter turnout reached 59.5 percent, according to the electoral commission, a higher level than at the same time in 2012, for Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin.
According to the first poll, Vladimir Putin is ahead of Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, who will only reap 11.2% of the vote, ahead of ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky (6.7%) and liberal opposition journalist Ksenia Sobchak (2.5%).
Opposition cries fraud
Eliminating the election due to a court sentence, the main opponent Alexei Navalny accused the Kremlin in the day of inflating the mobilization by filling the ballot boxes or organizing the mass transportation of voters to the polling stations. “They need participation. The result is that Putin’s victory with more than 70% (votes) was decided in advance, ” he told the press, ensuring that the actual participation was lower than in 2012.
“The only way to fight a political struggle in Russia is to protest. We will continue to do so, ” he warned.
The NGO Golos, which specializes in election monitoring, drew up on its website a map of fraud reporting at 17:00 GMT of 2,472 irregularities, such as jams, multiple votes or obstruction of observers.
Election Commissioner Ella Pamfilova, however, said that “there were not so many irregularities as that”. For its part, the campaign team of Vladimir Putin reported only 200 irregularities.
To encourage voters to participate in an unrestrained ballot following a sluggish campaign, the authorities conducted massive information and incentive campaigns, encouraging voters outside the place of residence, media also lobbying officials or students to vote. State of voters brought to the polls by buses as facility and coupons are distributed to the Russians for food for going to the polls.
Praised by some for bringing stability back to the 1990s and vilified by others for declining freedoms, Vladimir Putin was credited with about 70 percent of the voting intentions in the latest polls before the election.
This Sunday, the partial results gave, in second position, the candidate of the Communist Party Pavel Groudinine got 13.4%, in front of ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky (6.3%) and the journalist close to the liberal opposition Ksenia Sobchak ( 1.4%).
Alexei Navalny was expelled from the race after being declared ineligible for a misappropriation of funds, which he denounces as orchestrated by the authorities. With a loyal support base across the country, he called for a boycott and sent over 33,000 observers to polling stations.
