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Russiaâ€™s election chief says wonâ€™t resign

06 January 2012 04:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The head of Russiaâ€™s Central Election Commission (CEC), Vladimir Churov, said he would not resign despite demands by many critics following claims of rigged vote during the December parliamentary elections, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

â€œI already promised to give all answers to this question in four years,â€ Churov told the Ekho Moskvy radio in Thursday. His term of office ends in four years.

Asked what he would do should the countryâ€™s leadership ask him to resign, the CEC chief said: â€œWe will discuss it when they ask.â€

Churov, 58, was dubbed â€œwizardâ€ after the December 4 State Duma elections that critics claimed had been slanted in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin-led ruling United Russia party. Tens of thousands went out to protest the results, demanding a revote and Churovâ€™s dismissal.

The authorities admitted that there had been certain vote irregularities but denied that violations had substantially affected the results.

The presidential council on human rights said it did not trust Churov and urged him to resign â€“ a demand the top election official rejected.

Churov also told Ekho Moskvy that he believed it was unfair that public discussions on election results focused on him.

â€œThis is absolutely unjust. It seems to me my role in history has been much exaggerated,â€ he said.

He also accused his critics of falsifying video clips showing alleged election violations.

Russia will hold presidential elections on March 4, 2012. Putin, who held the presidential post in 2000-2008, is generally considered a shoo-in for a new presidential term this year.

Putin pledged in December that nearly all polling places will be equipped with webcams by the time of the presidential elections.

Churov said the webcam use technology rules out any possibility of editing video streams from polling places.

He said that by the time of the March presidential election, some 60,000 transparent ballot boxes will be bought and mounted at 30,000 out of about 90,000 polling places Russia has.