OSCE CONCLUSION ON THE ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA
Support A1+!The Russian Presidential Election on 14 March was generally well administered and reflected the consistently high public approval rating of the incumbent president but lacked elements of a genuine democratic contest. In addition to a dearth of meaningful debate and genuine pluralism, the election process failed to meet an important commitment concerning treatment by the state-controlled media, in particular television on a non-discriminatory basis. Those are the conclusions of the International Election Observation Mission.
"Voting proceeded in a calm atmosphere, which is commendable. A cause of concern was the practice of open voting and the lack of reaction to it by election officials. Observers reported that the counting procedures went smoothly in a majority of polling stations observed, but it is worrying that significant problems were reported in one quarter of counts witnessed", Rudolf Bindig, Head of Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said.
"Candidates were provided with the opportunity to present their messages to voters. This was, however, devalued by the state-controlled media displaying clear bias in favor of the incumbent in news presentation and coverage of the campaign, and the failure of the authorities to take adequate remedial action towards this bias. This demonstrates the need to transform state controlled media into independent public media, as ODIHR and the Council of Europe have already recommended on more than one occasion", Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE/ODIHR, said.
