Shouting 'Revolution!' and calling for an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, demonstrators accused the ruling party of stuffing ballot boxes and intimidating voters |
Some Russians have taken to the streets to protest ballot box stuffing and voter intimidation by Putin's ruling party
About 10,000 Russians took to the streets in Moscow to protest against what they said was a fraudulent election.
Shouting 'Revolution!' and calling for an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, demonstrators accused the ruling party of stuffing ballot boxes and intimidating voters to rig the parliamentary poll reports the UK Daily Mail.
Video: Hundreds arrested as thousands protest Russia's vote
In one of the biggest opposition demonstrations in Russia in years, protesters gathered in the rain on a tree-lined boulevard where they had permission for a rally.
They denounced the vote as shameful and shouted 'Russia without Putin!' Many tried to march on to a major street and were confronted by a chain of police officers who locked elbows and divided the surging crowd into two parts.
A number of people were detained.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow casts his vote. |
Officers detained at least 300 near the complex and bundled them into buses.
With all but a handful of results declared, United Russia had taken 49.5 per cent of the vote, leading to a fall in seats from 315 to 238.
Observers said the drop would have been greater in a fair election.
There were thousands of complaints of abuses. In one example, journalists penetrated a gang that smuggled voting slips already marked for United Russia into Moscow polling stations.
The nation's only independent election watchdog has been subjected to a massive official intimidation campaign in the week before the vote and saw its website blocked by what it described as a massive cyber attack it blamed on authorities.
Russian policemen detain a protester rallying against unfair parliamentary elections in Moscow |
For more on this story
No comments:
Post a Comment