Single election day of March 14 has probably become one of the quietest in the history of Russia. Both the participants and the observers agree on this.
Last Sunday Russia held numerous elections and referendums in 76 regions. Eight regions elected local parliaments. Although the final results are yet to be announced, the ruling United Russia party has claimed victory in most of the regions. The rest of the parties do not seem to be discontent with the results. The Communists say their main task was to promote their anti-crisis program and they believe they were successful in it. The Liberal-Democrats are neither going to contest the election, and expect good results in many regions.
According to a spokesman for the Liberal-Democratic Party, Igor Lebedev, the recent regional elections have proved to be more democratic than last October. Mr. Lebedev explains this by President Dmitry Medvedev`s initiatives on the improvement of the Russian political system. The Fair Russia Party says that although the results of the March 14 election will not change the political situation in the country dramatically, some changes in the balance of power are still very likely.
Some new technologies were put to test during Sunday's elections, including remote electronic voting. Chief Elections Commissioner Vladimir Churov visited three polling stations in the Ryazan region outside Moscow and confirmed a high turnout there:
"These polling stations were equipped with automatic computerized program replacing a chief of the election commission. Since it transfers data in the real time regime, all votes can be counted immediately after the voting is over", says Mr. Churov.
By the way, despite all concerns, elderly voters were pleased to try their hand in electronic voting.
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