EU calls on Russia to answer election criticism
BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission has urged Moscow to address accusations of electoral irregularities surrounding Russia’s weekend legislative polls, which were won by President Vladimir Putin’s party.
‘Everybody is aware that observers have denounced irregularities,’ said Johannes Laitenberger, spokesman for the EU’s executive arm.
‘It is in the interest of Russia to completely clarify all these allegations,’ he told reporters in Brussels.
Independent Russian monitoring body Golos has echoed international criticism of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
The director of Western-funded Golos, which managed to circumvent a ban on domestic independent observers by deploying thousands of journalists, strongly criticised the conduct of Sunday’s polls.
‘We believe these elections were not free or competitive. The elections took place under pressure,’ Liliya Shibanova told journalists.
The head of the country’s election commission brushed off such concerns, announcing Putin’s United Russia had secured 315 of the 450 seats in parliament.
The day after the election, Laitenberger had said the European Commission was reserving its judgement on the handling of the elections to ‘analyse’ the situation.
Several European governments have underlined the lack of transparency in the organisation of the elections, while employing varied levels of criticism.
Germany has been the harshest critic, calling the elections ‘not free and fair’ and ‘not democratic’.
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By Muslim Rahman on Dec 4, 2007 in World