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17 Sep, 2015 14:38

Honest and transparent: Putin praises Russia’s latest elections campaign

Honest and transparent: Putin praises Russia’s latest elections campaign

The latest regional elections have demonstrated that Russia’s multi-party political system have reached maturity, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with elected officials.

“Despite of the high degree of competition the legitimacy of these elections – both of the voting process and its results – has been confirmed by all participating political parties. This is further proof that a mature multi-party system is developing in Russia and the political culture in the country is growing,” the Kremlin press service quoted the president as saying on Thursday.

READ MORE: Russia where bears vote: 11,000 local elections roll through country

Putin also added that Russian voters had thrown their support behind forces prioritizing the development of the nation and politicians whom they know and trust. “The past elections campaign has yet again shown us that parliamentary parties play a key and a system-forming role in the country’s political life,” he said.

At the same time, the president noted it was positive that new bright candidates from non-parliamentary parties could compete in regional polls.

Putin said the forthcoming runoff in the gubernatorial polls in Irkutsk Region was more evidence that the campaign was honest and transparent. He added that both candidates who made it to the second round were decent people. Incumbent Governor Sergey Yaroschenko of the United Russia party will go against Communist Party candidate Sergey Levchenko in the second round of Irkutsk’s regional polls.

Some 11,000 local elections were held across the country on Unified National Elections Day on September 13. Voters in 83 regions elected governors, legislators, and city council members – with over 92,000 posts up for grabs. United Russia retained its majority positions in all legislatures where the vote was held. The Communist party came second in terms of overall number of seats.

After the Central Elections Commission summed up the results of the elections, all parliamentary parties said they were satisfied with one exception. The nationalist LDPR party demanded a vote recount in the Amur region where its candidate lost to the United Russia representative in a gubernatorial race. LDPR lawmakers walked out from a lower house session in protest over alleged violations and promised not to return until Friday.

READ MORE: Lower house scandal: Pro-Putin movement seeks probe into nationalist insults

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