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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Russian Communists say election stolen by pro-Putin candidate

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VLADIVOSTOK, Russia: Hundreds of Russian Communist Party supporters took to the central square of Vladivostok on Monday to protest against what they said was the rigging of a regional election in favour of a politician backed by President Vladimir Putin.


With 95 per cent of votes counted on Sunday night, Kremlin-backed United Russia incumbent Andrei Tarasenko was trailing his Communist rival by around 5 per cent. But on Monday, the local election commission said Tarasenko had won by just over 1 per cent, an unlikely turnaround that the Communists said was evidence of rigging.


The scandal is awkward for Putin, who met Tarasenko a week ago and told him that “everything will be OK”. The comment was widely seen as a personal endorsement of Tarasenko, whom Putin appointed acting governor last year, at a time when Putin’s own ratings are under pressure from plans to raise the pension age.


A week ago in the Primorsky Region, which includes the Pacific port of Vladivostok, 6,400 km east of Moscow, Tarasenko failed to pass the 50 per cent threshold for an outright win. That, and three other reversals in elections to select regional governors, amounted to the worst showing for Kremlin-backed candidates since 2012. Though there is no immediate threat to the ruling United Russia Party’s grip on power, it suggests growing discontent over living standards.


Communist candidate Andrei Ishchenko told a crowd of hundreds of people in central Vladivostok on Monday that the vote count had been rigged, and urged supporters to protest every evening until the result was overturned.


Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin was closely watching the situation and would be guided by Pamfilova.


— Reuters


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