A majority of Russians approved amendments to Russia’s constitution in a week-long vote ending on Wednesday, allowing President Vladimir Putin to hold power until 2036, although the balloting was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.
With most of the nation’s polls closed and 15% of precincts counted, 71% voted for the changes, according to election officials.
For the first time in Russia, polls were open for a week to bolster turnout without increasing crowds casting ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic – a provision Kremlin critics denounced as an extra tool to manipulate the outcome.
In Moscow, there were reports of unusually high numbers of at-home voters, with hundreds visited by poll workers in a matter of hours, along with multiple complaints from poll workers that paperwork documenting the turnout was being concealed from them.
Kirill Trofimov, an election worker in Moscow, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday some polling stations in his district reported 400-500 people voting at home or at work.
It was was highly unusual for their district, where each of the several polling stations usually has a couple dozen at-home voters, he said.
Trofimov wasn’t able to find sufficient documentation that proved at-home voting on such a scale.
“The number of people who vote at home doesn’t (usually) exceed some 1,000 voters at all 38 precincts in our district. But this time, the number of at-home voters has reached 11,000-12,000 in just a few days,” Trofimov told the Associated Press.
“The biggest problem is that there’s absolutely no public control and we can’t confirm or refute the results of the vote. Because the early voting ballots, whether given at home or in staircases, are stored at voting commissions and are not properly safeguarded,” said David Kankia, coordinator with Golos, an independent election monitoring group.
By Tuesday, Golos has received almost 700 complaints about various voting violations.
Election authorities in the meantime insisted there were only isolated incidents.
Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s Central Elections Commission, had urged people to “stay calm” should they be “provoked” while voting.
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