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Russian election chief says hurt by â€˜poll fraudâ€™ criticism

13 January 2012 21:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russiaâ€™s election chief said on Friday that he was â€œoffendedâ€ by insults against his person following the countryâ€™s disputed parliamentary polls, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.

Vladimir Churov, 58, was dubbed â€œthe wizardâ€ after the December 4 elections, which saw allegations of mass vote fraud in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putinâ€™s United Russia party.

The allegations led to the largest anti-government protests for almost two decades, with demonstrators demanding a rerun and Churovâ€™s dismissal.

But Churov who once said â€œMy first rule is that Putin is always rightâ€ told journalists on Friday that he was hurt by criticism of his role and accused critics of â€œbeating an unarmed person.â€

â€œMany think I do not get offended,â€ he said. â€œThis is untrue and this offends me, as they know that I canâ€™t respond to them while I am in this post.â€

He also said that the presidential election campaign was underway and that any comments he might make could be interpreted as illegal campaigning.

â€œThey really are beating an unarmed person. But I will gladly answer them after the March 4 elections,â€ he said.

Putin is widely expected to secure a third stint in the Kremlin, although analysts say his declining popularity could see him forced into a runoff.

Churov also said that the OSCE/ODIHR final report on Russiaâ€™s parliamentary polls was professional, but failed to separate its political and technical assessments of the widely criticized vote.

â€œThe ODIHR report is very good, very professional,â€ he said. â€œBut the political element should be separated from the assessment of the voting process.â€

The report, published on Thursday, said the preparations for the December 4 State Duma elections were â€œtechnically well-administered, but the elections were marked by the convergence of the state and the governing party.â€

â€œThe contest was also slanted in favor of the ruling party,â€ the report added.

The report also said election officials were â€œobserved to be dedicated and experienced and procedures were followed overall,â€ but lamented that â€œthe quality of the process deteriorated considerably during the count, which was characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulation.â€