Putin casts his vote in 'rigged' Russia presidential election 2018

Putin casts his vote in 'rigged' Russia presidential election 2018



Shocking videos show blatant ballot rigging as Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory in the Russian presidential election.



In the Moscow suburb of Lyubertsy, a stash of filled-in votes was put in the ballot box by an election official.



Soon after, another official put more ballot papers in the box - all caught by CCTV cameras. The officials are supposed to guarantee the integrity of the election, but are seen cheating.



In another video from Dagestan, a man is seen filling the ballot box with completed voting slips as a woman election official stands guard. This is seen when polling station number 380 is empty.



At another polling station - number 1126 - in the same region, a group of wrestlers created a commotion to block observers while a man stuffed the ballot box with completed votes. 



It comes as the Central Election Commission said Putin is on course to win the election with 75.9 per cent of the vote after the majority of ballots were counted. Putin said his victory was a recognition of his work as leader over the last few years.



He told a crowd of 30,000 people in the capital's Red Square that Russia has a great future ahead of it provided its people stayed united, adding: 'Think about the future of our great motherland'.



Before leaving the stage to applause, he led the crowd in a chant of 'Russia, Russia!'



He also laughed off a question about whether he would run for another term in office after 2024.



Putin said he regarded the query about whether he would seek yet another term in six years' time as 'funny.'



'Let's count. What, do you think I will sit (in power) until I'm 100 years old?' he told the reporter who asked him the question.



A spokesman for Putin told Interfax news agency it was an 'incredible victory', adding: 'The percentage that we have just seen speaks for itself. It's a mandate which Putin needs for future decisions, and he has a lot of them to make'.



An exit poll by pollster VTsIOM put Communist party challenger Pavel Grudinin in second place with 11.2 per cent, behind Putin's 73.9.



Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, was on 6.7 per cent, and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak had 2.5 per cent, the exit poll showed.



Overall national turnout was expected to be a little more than 60 percent, which would be several points below turnout in Putin's electoral wins in 2000, 2004 and 2012. He did not run in 2008 because of term limits, but was appointed prime minister, a role in which he was widely seen as leader.



The spy scandal with Britain appeared to have helped not harmed him with Russian voters.



Putin has promised to use his new term to beef up Russia's defences against the West and to raise living standards.



In yet another case of voting irregularities highlighted on video, however, a group of nuns voted while the Mother Superior openly checked to see that they had all correctly marked the papers for Putin.



These cases are certain to raise questions over the result of the election as Putin heads towards a record fourth term in the Kremlin.



But although Putin's victory isn't in doubt, the only real question is whether voters will turn out in big enough numbers to hand him a convincing mandate for his fourth term - which many Russians are facing intense pressure to do so.



Authorities have spent unprecedented funds to get out the vote to ensure he has a strong mandate for his next six years in office.



Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin said he would consider any percentage of votes a success. 'The program that I propose for the country is the right one,' he said.



Meanwhile the president's rumoured gymnast girlfriend Alina Kabaeva has also been seen casting her vote, but declined to say who she backed.





She did, however, offer a not-so-cryptic clue by saying of her choice: 'He will surely win.'   



The glamorous 34-year-old arrived alone at a central Moscow polling station and appeared to be wearing a wedding ring.



She gave her internal Russian passport to a female election official who gushed: 'We are waiting for you, we are waiting for you… and you have not been coming…,' criticising her for not voting in earlier municipal elections.



Kabaeva, 31 years younger than Putin, asked the official to 'remind me' how to cast her ballot.



Smiling, she placed her ballot in the voting machine before exiting the polling station.



The Kremlin has constantly denied the Olympic gold medal winner is his secret first lady, but speculation about the former loyalist MP has persisted, including claims they have children together. 





Election monitors were reporting irregularities at voting stations across Russia, even though election authorities were under orders to ensure that the voting was free and fair after violations marred Putin's last election in 2012.