DW News published this video item, entitled “Putin’s United Russia wins Russian election after barring opposition | DW News” – below is their description.
Early results in Russia’s parliamentary election point to a victory for President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party. With a third of all the ballots counted, the party has won some 45 percent. The vote came in the wake of a clampdown that saw many opposition politicians and activists arrested or barred from running.
This time Russia’s voters had three days to cast their ballots, rather than just one. In some regions people could even vote online. Observers say the goal was a high voter turnout to lend the election more legitimacy.
But for three days, there have also been reports of voter fraud. Videos of election officials trying to cover up obvious ballot stuffing made the rounds. Some of them went viral. But Russia’s central electoral commission has said the vote was overwhelmingly transparent.
Independent monitors disagree. They put the number of violations at over 3000. But voters in Moscow hoped their ballot could make a difference.
Russia’s communist party came second in the ballot. Traditionally they have been considered loyal to the Kremlin. But that may now be changing with young faces joining the old guard.
Historically the Duma has upheld the status quo, but with Russia’s economy in crisis, the new parliament might need to make some tough change in the country.
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About This Source - DW News
DW News is a global English-language news and information channel from German public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, established in summer 2015.
Moscow, on the Moskva River in western Russia, is the nation’s cosmopolitan capital. In its historic core is the Kremlin, a complex that’s home to the president and tsarist treasures in the Armoury. Outside its walls is Red Square, Russia’s symbolic center. It’s home to Lenin’s Mausoleum, the State Historical Museum’s comprehensive collection and St. Basil’s Cathedral, known for its colorful, onion-shaped domes.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and a former officer of the KGB who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 1999 until 2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician and a former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, previously being in the office from 1999 until 2008. He was also Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.
Voting is a method for a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, in order to make a collective decision or express an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a place represented by an elected official are called “constituents”, and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called “voters”. There are different systems for collecting votes, but while many of the systems used in decision-making can also be used as electoral systems, any which cater for proportional representation can only be used in elections.
In smaller organizations, voting can occur in different ways. Formally via ballot to elect others for example within a workplace, to elect members of political associations or to choose roles for others. Informally voting could occur as a spoken agreement or as a verbal gesture like a raised hand or electronically.
