Thanks for coming to vote

Russia's presidential elections held on March 14 resulted in a 
clear win for President Putin. Although Putin received 71.27 
percent of the votes cast, giving him a massive majority, his 
vote was lower than expected in pre-poll predictions.

What is not being reported is that all the candidates of Putin's 
"United Russia" Party were defeated in the election for the 
Moscow City Duma and that a number of "United Russia" candidates 
for Regional Governors, in the 11 regions in which elections were 
held, were also defeated.

Although Putin remains without a serious challenger his Party's 
defeat in Moscow suggests that his power base is rather unstable.

There was widespread voter indifference which can be partly 
explained by the way parliamentary (Duma) elections were 
conducted in December last year. Media manipulation, ballot 
rigging and a host of other dirty election techniques were used 
to give Putin's "United Russia" Party a clear majority.

The runner-up to Putin in the Presidential elections was 
Haritonov the candidate of the Agrarian Party. He was supported 
by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and 
polled over 14 percent which is a higher vote than that obtained 
by the CPRF's leader Gennadi Zuganov in the December 2003 Duma 
elections.

Glaziev, who broke away from the Communist Party and created his 
own "Motherland All Russia" Party, polled only 3.8 percent which 
is lower than his vote in the December 2003 Duma elections.

Taken together the two left candidates polled just over 18 
percent.

Another interesting result was the 3.5 percent vote for the 
category — "None of the above".

Why Putin got such a high vote remains a mystery to many overseas 
observers. According to Putin himself one third of the population 
is now living in poverty after the break-up of the Soviet Union, 
Russia's international influence is minimal, the armed forces 
have been decimated and the Russian Federation now has NATO 
troops on its borders. US bases are being established in former 
southern republics of the Soviet Union.

Once again Putin promised to work towards making life better for 
people and improving Russia's standing in the world.

A joke doing the rounds in Russia before the elections went like 
this:

A crow is sitting on a tree branch, holding a piece of cheese in 
its beak.

A fox appears and asks: "Will you vote for Putin?"

The crow holds on to the cheese and does not say anything.

The fox asks again: "Will you vote for Putin?"

The crow remains silent.

The fox asks again and this time the crow says "yes". The cheese 
falls to the ground; the fox snatches it and runs away.

The crow thinks: "Would it have been any different had I said 
'no'?"