When Putin was elected president six years ago, he received 76.69 percent of all votes, according to the country’s election commission. It was a record. Now Putin wants to break that record to be able to show that at least 80 percent of everyone who votes supports him. It states political sources to the Russian independent newspaper Jellyfish.
Putin’s methods since 2018
Before the 2018 election, Alexei Navalny fought to become one of the presidential candidates. He was ultimately barred from running, but Navalny succeeded in mobilizing an opposition to the incumbent president.
In order not to risk low election results, Putin’s associates developed several methods to get the Russian people to vote for him. Methods that are also used in the upcoming election.
Employees are forced to go to the polls
One of the methods is that authorities and companies loyal to the Kremlin have employees who, in addition to their regular jobs, must mobilize colleagues to vote for Putin.
– They want to attract a lot of people, but they want to attract the right kind of people. The government has a big problem right now with getting support, so turnout is not as important as Putin getting his results, says Roman Udot, independent election expert.
Before Udot was forced to leave Russia, he was one of the leaders of the Golos movement, which fights for free elections in Russia.
Digital voting
In addition to reusing methods from 2018, the Kremlin has added digital voting in many locations across Russia. It developed in Moscow, one of the cities with the highest percentage of opposition parties.
– It is used in cities that protest against the incumbent power. We can count people who come to the polling stations, we can see them on the cameras and count their votes on paper. But we cannot control the digital voices that are on the cloud, says Roman Udot.