Russia to invite 700 foreign monitors for presidential vote
January 13th, 2012 - 10:12 pm ICT by IANS ( Leave a comment )Moscow, Jan 13 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia will invite up to 700 foreign observers to monitor the presidential election in March, double the number compared to the last poll in 2008, the chief election official said Friday.
The foreign observers would include 200 people from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe’s largest monitoring group, said Vladimir Churov.
The OSCE had cited numerous violations in the December parliamentary elections. It said the polls were “slanted” in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.
President Dmitry Medvedev has insisted the vote was fair and democratic but promised to investigate the allegations of vote fraud.
The OSCE had boycotted the 2008 election after disagreeing with Russia over the size and scope of the mission.
Other observers at the March 4 vote include 40 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and 30 from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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