By RIA Novosti
St. Petersburg : About 200 Communist supporters rallied in Russia’s second largest city on Sunday against what they called rigged parliamentary polls.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, whose party took 11.6% of the vote in parliamentary elections on December 2 and was one of four parties that made it into the State Duma, earlier said violations had been reported virtually in all Russia’s regions, and were especially prolific in the Siberian Kemerovo Region, the southern republics of Daghestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, and Mordovia in the Volga area.
International monitors said Russia’s elections had failed to meet basic democratic standards, saying that President Putin, who headed United Russia’s candidate list and campaigned on its behalf, had effectively merged the state with his party in the run-up to the election. They also noted undemocratic election legislation amendments and media restrictions.
Russian officials retorted that the State Duma vote showed popular confidence in the policies pursued by the Kremlin and would help ensure further sustainable growth and stability.
Putin’s United Russia party won a landslide victory at the December 2 parliamentary poll with 64.3% of the vote, followed by the Communists (11.57%), the Liberal-Democratic party (8.14%) and the Kremlin loyalist, A Just Russia party (7.74%).
The demonstrators are also protesting against price hikes in the housing and utilities sector and an increase in transport fares.