"Yesterday's elections proved that the Russian people can form the future of this country by expressing their will despite many obstacles. However, changes are needed for the will of the people to be respected," said Petros Efthymiou, Head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation. The parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe issued a joint statement about the election, which the Nordic Council delegation subsequently endorsed.

The Nordic Council sent a small delegation consisting of Michael Tetzschner (Norway), Jeppe Mikkelsen (Denmark) and Helen Pettersson (Sweden) to observe the election. Other Nordic MPs were among the larger groups of observers sent by the OSCE and the Council of Europe. A total of 325 international observers visited more than 1,300 polling stations and followed the count at 115 of them.

This may only represent a fraction of the total number of polling stations in the huge country but their observations suggest that not everything went according to the book. The Nordic Council observers managed to visit 20 polling stations. In general, the actual polling went well, but the counting was a different matter. One team of observers was denied entry until ballot boxes had been emptied and the counting started. Jeppe Mikkelsen watched the whole count at one small polling station. Local residents accounted for only about one fifth of the votes cast there while 1,000 public employees were bussed in. He told Jyllands-Posten:

"Nobody seemed to be checking numbers properly. At one point, the data suggested that the number of votes was higher than the number of ballot papers. I asked how that worked and was told they had received extra ballot papers. The numbers just kept changing all the time. The turnout was absurdly high, up to 90%. It was little surprise that 80% of the vote went to United Russia."

The 450 members of the State Duma will continue to be from four parties. United Russia lost ground and only polled approx. 49.5% but will remain in power. The Communists gained ground and polled 19.1%. The more social-democratic A Fair Russia won 13.2% of the vote, the nationalist and populist Liberal Democratic Party 11.6%. Three parties failed to reach the 7% threshold. The biggest of them was the liberal Jabloko with 3.3%.

Statement by the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe

Jyllands-Posten

Torkil Sørensen
Phone +45 33 96 04 46
Email ts@norden.org