PUTIN LOOKS TO SECURE 5TH TERM AS RUSSIANS HEAD TO POLLS

  Voters cast ballots in Simferopol, Crimea Photo: AP

Fri 15 March 2024:

For the first time, people across Russia and in the annexed regions of Ukraine will vote for three days in the presidential election from today to Sunday. Results will follow shortly afterwards, and the winner will be inaugurated in May.

The multiday voting system was introduced in the 2020 referendum to amend the constitution, but it will be used in a presidential vote for the first time.

A candidate must receive more than half of the votes to win the election. If no candidate reaches that mark, a second round of voting will take place about three weeks later.

Russians are only electing the president. Elections for the legislative branch, which makes up the State Duma, are scheduled for 2026.

About 110 million people have the right to vote in Russia.

A survey conducted in February by VTsIOM, a Kremlin-controlled pollster, found that about 79 percent of Russians intend to vote for Putin.

Incumbent President Vladimir Putin is largely expected to win and secure his fifth term as leader of the country.

Three other candidates from Kremlin-friendly parties are on the ballot, including Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party.

Davankov is the current deputy chair of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.

The parties have broadly supported the Kremlin and its policies, including the Ukraine war.

The West casts Putin as a war criminal, killer and dictator. But opinion polls in Russia show he has approval ratings of 85 percent – higher than before the invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin says Putin enjoys overwhelming support and that Russia does not want to be lectured by the West about democracy. It says the West is trying to undermine Russia by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election.

Supporters say Putin halted the spiral of decline that peaked with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and restored at least some of the clout once held by the general secretaries who ruled it while standing up to what the Kremlin casts as a declining West led by the US.

Much of the Russian opposition, from hardline communists to radical nationalists, adhere to the formal rules of the tightly controlled political system and, despite having seats in parliament, does not oppose the Kremlin on major issues. Pro-Western liberals do not have any seats in Parliament.

Putin called on Russians to vote in the presidential elections during a video address on Wednesday night.

“I would like to emphasise that the people are the only source of power in our country. This key legal provision is enshrined in the Constitution. It means that only you, the citizens of Russia, determine the future of the Fatherland,” Putin said.

He added that the country was going through a “difficult period” and that to overcome it, it needed to stay “united and confident”.

“Our military on the front lines will vote as well. They display courage and heroism, defend our Fatherland, and participate in the elections to set an example for all of us,” he said.

“So, I urge you to exercise your right to vote during the next three days. Polling stations will open everywhere, in every city, town, and village of our large country.”

Putin has been in power since 2000 and was re-elected in 2004, 2012 and 2018 – serving two four-year terms and two six-year terms.

In 2021, Putin signed a decree allowing him to run for two more presidential terms in office and, if successful, extend his rule until 2036.

This election marks the first of those two additional terms.

If he wins this election, it will make him the longest ruler of Russia since Joseph Stalin.

Putin also served as prime minister from 2008 until 2012 under then-President Dmitry Medvedev but effectively remained Russia’s political leader during that period.

What happened to Russia’s opposition?

What are the main election issues?