Vladimir Putin is declared the winner of referendum five hours BEFORE polls close and will seize power until 2036 after 73% back him in ‘rigged’vote

Tim Sticking — Mail Online July 1, 2020

• Referendum will approve changes allowing Putin to run again in 2024 and 2030 
• Russian officials issued ‘preliminary results’ showing 73% backing for the change
• Package of changes will also increase Putin’s powers over parliament and courts

Vladimir Putin is clear to stay in power until 2036 after winning a referendum to prolong his rule – in a landslide victory declared before polls had even closed.

Russia‘s election commission issued ‘preliminary results’ this afternoon showing Putin on course to win 73 per cent of the vote.

The early announcement was the latest oddity in an election where Putin’s victory was seen as a certainty following a massive state propaganda campaign, a prize draw offering cars and apartments to lure voters into taking part and reports of irregular turnout figures in the regions.

Putin’s victory means his presidential term tally will be reset to zero, meaning he can stay in the Kremlin beyond 2024 when he would normally reach his term limit.

The former KGB officer has already ruled for more than 20 years as president or prime minister, and his path is now clear to reign for longer than Josef Stalin.

The package of constitutional changes will also increase Putin’s powers to dissolve parliament and expand his influence over courts and prosecutors.   

The referendum was originally scheduled for April 22 but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Election officials were today taking ballot boxes into hospitals in order to boost turnout, while polling stations were kept open for a week to reduce crowds.

State exit polls have suggested that Putin’s changes will be backed by more than two-thirds of electors, who have been coaxed into voting with prize draws and a campaign highlighting some of the other amendments on the table.

These include a minimum wage and state pensions regularly adjusted to inflation as well as socially conservative measures such as a ban on same-sex marriage.

Authorities have also mounted a sweeping effort to persuade teachers, doctors, workers at public sector enterprises and others who are paid by the state to cast ballots.

Reports surfaced from many corners of the vast country that managers were coercing people to vote.

By Wednesday morning, the turnout already exceeded 55 per cent, according to election officials.

But Kremlin critics and independent election observers questioned official figures showing that in some regions up to 85% of eligible voters had turned out.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos, called the overall vote numbers ‘suspicious in general.’

‘We look at neighbouring regions, and anomalies are obvious – there are regions where the turnout is artificially (boosted), there are regions where it is more or less real,’ Melkonyants said.

The Golos monitoring group noted unusual differences between neighboring regions: in the Siberian republic of Tyva over 73 per cent voted during the first five days, while in the neighboring Irkutsk region the turnout was around 22 per cent and in the neighboring republic of Altai it was under 33 per cent.

‘These differences can be explained only by forcing people to vote in certain areas or by rigging,’ Golos said.

Putin’s opponents mocked the vote online, sharing photographs of polling stations which were set up in apartment stairwells, courtyards and even the boot of a car.

Opposition campaigner Alexei Navalny has slammed the vote as a populist ploy designed to make Putin ‘president for life’.

‘It is a violation of the constitution, a coup,’ he has said.

But the opposition – divided, weakened by years of political repression and with little access to state-controlled media – has failed to mount a serious ‘no’ campaign.

Monitoring the vote became more challenging due to hygiene requirements and more arcane rules for election observers.

Prizes ranging from gift certificates to cars and apartments were offered as an encouragement, giant billboards went up across Russia and celebrities posted ads for the ‘yes’ vote on social media.

In addition, Putin ordered one-off payments of 10,000 roubles (£113) to be sent to those with children as people headed to polling stations on Wednesday.

Two regions with large numbers of voters – Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod – allowed electronic balloting and voters with Russian passports from eastern Ukraine were brought across the border in buses to vote.

The Atlantic Council, a US-based think-tank, published an article last month calling the referendum ‘farcical’.

‘Only the most credulous of observers would doubt that the true purpose of the exercise is to prolong Putin’s reign indefinitely,’ it said.

‘Nor is there much suspense regarding the result. Indeed, given the purely decorative nature of voting in Putin’s Russia, the only real debate is over the size of the coming government majority.’

Putin says the changes are needed to ensure stability and cement Russian values in the face of pernicious Western influences.

‘We are voting for the country… we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren,’ he said on Tuesday in a final appeal to voters.

‘We can ensure stability, security, prosperity and a decent life only through development, only together and by ourselves.’

State television showed Putin voting today at his usual polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he was handed a ballot by an election worker wearing a surgical mask and gloves.

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