Putin party wins Russian parliament poll

RUSSIAN peacekeeper uses an axe to cut corners of unused ballots so they could not be used, in Sukhum in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, Dec 7. - Reuterspix.

MOSCOW Dec 8 - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed an election that stacked parliament with his allies as a step forward for democracy but Western observers criticised the poll as ``overwhelmingly distorted''.

The fourth such election since the Soviet Union's collapse crushed Putin's Communist and liberal opponents - prompting warnings of a return to authoritarian rule - and effectively guaranteed him a second term in next spring's presidential poll.

It could also give him enough votes to change the constitution so he can run for a third term.

Putin's supporters say the pro-Kremlin majority will hand the ex-KGB spy more powers to push economic reform and fight corruption. Critics fear the death of democracy after a strong nationalist showing all but wiped out liberal parties.

``The election is another step in strengthening democracy in the Russian Federation,'' Putin told senior officials.

But the leader of the Communist Party, facing a second death after its rebirth in the chaos of the 1990s, called the election a farce and accused the Kremlin of rigging the vote.

``You are all participants in a revolting spectacle which for some reason is called an election,'' Gennady Zyuganov said.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a rights and democracy watchdog, said the vote was skewed by use of state resources to promote United Russia.

``In this election the enormous advantage of incumbency and access to state equipment, resources and buildings led to the election result being overwhelmingly distorted,'' said Bruce George, president of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly.

Critics said campaigning was a throw-back to Soviet days.

Created by the Kremlin for the last election in 1999 to help Putin's rise to power, United Russia won 37.1 percent of the vote, the central election commission said. Its main slogan was ``Together with the President''.

The communists - Putin's main opposition - had only 12.7 percent, well down from the 24 percent they won in 1999.

Ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party - which backs the Kremlin on key issues - won 11.6 percent and Motherland, seen by many as a Kremlin creation to draw off votes from the communists, had 9.1 percent.

That means the pro-Kremlin bloc could get the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution to allow Putin a third four-year term - although he ruled that out in June.

The vote reflected widespread support for Putin's efforts to restore central control since succeeding Boris Yeltsin in 2000 and ending the chaos of the early reform years.

``Sunday's election shows what the Russian people actually think: they are stridently nationalist, want wealth redistributed and have little interest in liberal or democratic values,'' Aton brokerage said in a research note.

Russian stocks opened down on concerns about liberal parties' poor showing, which could push key reformists off powerful parliament committees, but recovered later in the day.

Markets are still jittery over a Kremlin-led attack on Russia's richest businessman, former YUKOS chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which they fear could herald a bid by hardliners in Putin's circle to put the economy under more state control.

Khodorkovsky was arrested in October on charges of tax evasion and fraud, raising fears that the Kremlin might review results of 1990s privatisations.

``We will return wealth to the people,'' Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of Motherland, told Ekho Moskvy radio station.

In an otherwise drab election campaign, there has been no mention of rebel Chechnya despite almost daily bloodshed. On Sunday, gunmen shot dead an election commission official there and four Russian soldiers were killed in a rebel ambush. - Reuters