Russia election 'undemocratic'
2004-03-15 20:47
Moscow - Russia's presidential election, which saw Vladimir Putin cruise to a landslide victory, failed to meet the standards necessary for a "healthy democratic" process, the OSCE and Council of Europe said on Monday.
"In general the election was well administered. However the election process overall did not adequately reflect principles necessary for a healthy democratic election process," said Julian Peel-Yates, the head of the two bodies' joint mission.
He told reporters that basic democratic principles, including "vibrant political discourse and meaningful pluralism" were lacking in the election.
The criticism from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Council of Europe echoed comments by top US officials over the weekend, who expressed concern over the lack of television airtime given to Putin's five opposition challengers.
Russia's two state television channels gave little space to the opposition candidates, instead concentrating on Putin's daily programme of meetings and appointments. Putin gave only two election addresses during the entire campaign.
"The state controlled media showed clear bias in favour of the incumbent in news presentation and coverage of the campaign," the two organisations said in their report.
Peel-Yates said that the "lack of democratic culture" in Russia's third presidential elections since the fall of the Soviet Union was reflected in the fact that one of the candidates was prevented from making a television appearance on more than one occasion during the campaign.
The election "failed to meet important commitments such as treatment by state-controlled media on a fair basis and the secrecy of the vote", he said.
It also criticised the central election commission for using pro-Putin imagery in campaigns to encourage people to vote and said the authorities in southern Moscow were guilty of issuing "subliminal" messages in favour of Putin.
It detailed several instances of problems faced by the five challengers, in particular the nationalist Sergei Glazyev, who was the victim of a power cut in the central city of Nizhny Novgorod just as he was about to give a news conference.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had said on Sunday: "Russians have to understand that to have full democracy of the kind the international community will recognise, you've got to let candidates have all access to the media that the president has".
The comments by the OSCE and Council of Europe followed stinging criticism by the OSCE of December's parliamentary elections, which it described as "free but not fair".