Western, local observers criticize Russian election

By Conor Sweeney

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Western observers and independent Russian monitors criticized Russia's presidential election on Monday as neither free nor fair, but said its outcome broadly reflected the will of the people.

Andreas Gross, head of the only Western monitoring mission, said "there was not freedom" in Sunday's vote, which President Vladimir Putin's hand-picked candidate, Dmitry Medvedev, won by a landslide.

He told reporters the outcome of the election "amounted, in effect, to a vote of confidence in the incumbent president", adding that most of the flaws seen in Russia's parliamentary election last December were repeated.

His mission's verdict, outlined in a wider report, prompted Russian election chief Vladimir Churov to scorn calls for greater transparency.

"What should I do, should I make CEC (central election commission) members work naked?" Churov said in televised remarks. "I am unaware of a document which would outline a procedure for the use of democratic potential."

BACK TO THE USSR?

Russia's liberals -- a small minority of the population -- have criticized the vote as a farce, saying it was stage managed by the Kremlin from the outset. With 99.45 percent of the votes counted, Medvedev had 70.23 percent, the CEC said.

Golos, an independent network of observers that fielded some 2,000 monitors in 38 Russian regions, said the vote was marred by official pressure to boost voter turnout, ballot stuffing and multiple voting.