Russia will invite 300 to 400 foreign observers for the Dec. 2 parliamentary election, about a third of the number four years ago.
“Russia doesn’t need to invite an army of observers, because the Russian electoral system is one of most advanced in the world,” Igor Borisov, an official in Russia’s Central Elections Commission, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third successive term, said Oct. 1 that he would head the pro-Kremlin United Russia party’s list of candidates and might become prime minister.
Putin is seeking personal control of a two-thirds majority in parliament, said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent lawmaker in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.
“Putin’s aim is to keep power, and parliament will be his instrument,” Ryzhkov said Wednesday. “There will be massive ballot-rigging, millions of votes, which is why they are restricting foreign observers.”
The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the continent’s main democracy watchdog, has complained that Russia is preventing a full assessment of the election.
“We are trying to be serious about our work in a very difficult situation,” Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokeswoman for the OSCE’s election monitoring arm, said.
The OSCE sent more than 400 observers to monitor the 2003 parliamentary election, which it said failed to meet “many” international standards. This time, the OSCE contingent will be far smaller. Russia is inviting monitors from other organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, a Russian-led group of 12 former Soviet republics.
In 2003, more than 1,160 observers from the CIS and other countries monitored the election, Interfax reported.
The election commission’s Borisov said foreign observers could start their work in a month, just before polling day.
The OSCE, which had an observer mission in place six weeks before the December 2003 elections, still hasn’t received an invitation.
