Watchdogs pull out of Russia election

Watchdogs pull out of Russia election

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: February 7 2008 11:18 | Last updated: February 7 2008 11:18

Europe’s two main election watchdogs said on Thursday they were pulling out of monitoring Russia’s presidential elections due to severe restrictions and concerns over the fairness of a poll in which Vladimir Putin’s anointed successor is expected to sweep to victory.

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said on Thursday it would not deploy a mission to observe Russia’s March 2 elections because Russia had imposed restrictions which would not allow it to arrive in time to fully observe the election process.

”What is true for every election is also true for this one: transparency strengthens democracy; politics behind closed doors weakens it, Ambassador Christian Strohal, ODHIR’s director said in a statement explaining the decision.

The decision will sharpen a war of words between Russia and the west over the role of the OSCE and cast doubt on the legitimacy of elections already branded a farce by opposition candidates due to the blanket media coverage given to Mr Putin’s preferred successor, Dmitry Medvedev, while the only independent candidate has been barred from running.

It comes amid mounting acrimony between Russia and the OSCE over when the body could start monitoring the election process. ODHIR has said it needs to arrive in Russia by February15 in order to properly monitor the poll. But Russia has said it may only arrive on February 20.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the ODHIR of setting ”ultimatums” and called for its reform.

”ODHIR has been making public statements, the essence of which is that it has made its demands and if these are not met ODHIR will not come,” Mr Lavrov said.

”Lets put it this way – in Russian, as well as in any other language, this is called an ultimatum. A country which respects itself accepts no ultimatums. We regret that this approach prevailed in ODHIR’s stance,” he said.

The ODHIR decision came on top of a decision by the OSCE’s other election monitoring arm, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which earlier on Thursday said it was pulling out because of restrictions on the number of monitors forwarded by Russia and because the poll was ”uncontested”.

Official campaigning began in Russia this week, but without any sense of contest. Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Putin’s preferred successor, has been receiving blanket coverage on state television as he tours Russia vowing to boost living standards on what his staff say are working trips in his capacity as first deputy prime minister and not a campaign. Mr Medvedev has refused to take part in tv debates.

Opposition politicians have branded the elections a farce. The only truly independent figure Mikhail Kasyanov, a liberal-leaning former Prime minister, has been banned from running by the Central Elections Commission which claimed signatures were forged in his support.