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OSCE poll monitors to boycott Russia's presidential elections

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Two of Europe's main election monitoring bodies refused on Thursday to send observers to Russia's March 2 presidential polls, citing restrictions imposed by the country's top election officials.
MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - Two of Europe's main election monitoring bodies refused on Thursday to send observers to Russia's March 2 presidential polls, citing restrictions imposed by the country's top election officials.

"The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights [ODIHR] regrets that restrictions imposed on its planned election observation mission will not allow it to deploy a mission to the 2 March 2008 presidential election in Russia," the ODIHR said on its website.

Another OSCE body, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, also said earlier on Thursday that it would not send its observers to Russia. Klas Bergman, director of communications at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said the refusal was prompted by Russia's quotas on the number of observers.

Earlier on Thursday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the ODIHR against issuing ultimatums on sending observers to the country's upcoming presidential polls.

The election monitoring body, whose presence at polls is considered vital by the West in order for elections to be judged legitimate, wanted to send at least 50 of its observers to Russia on February 15, five days before the date proposed by Moscow. It claimed this was necessary in order to more effectively monitor the election campaign, and had threatened to boycott the polls if the conditions were not met.

ODIHR director Christian Strohal cited "severe restrictions on the composition and duration of the mission" as reasons for the refusal.

"An election is more than what happens on Election Day... The time frame set by Russian authorities has already prevented us from observing many important parts of the election process, beginning with the registration of candidates and aspects of the campaign, including the work of the media," Strohal said.

A number of candidates were refused permission by Russia's election authorities to register for the polls, including ex-premier Mikhail Kasyanov, whose application was turned down last month due to irregularities in signatures collected backing his candidacy. Non-party candidates have to gather 2 million signatures supporting their election bid in order to be registered for the polls.

The ODIHR chief denounced "politics behind closed doors" and regretted "this development" in Russia. However, he expressed hopes that the country's authorities would be able "to find their way back to unimpeded co-operation with the ODIHR and its long-established election observation mandate."

Russia's Central Election Commission had earlier invited ODHIR observers to arrive in Russia from February 27-28, but after a request from the election body agreed to let 25 of the 70 observers into the country by the end of this week, and the remainder after February 20.

The Kremlin front-runner in next month's presidential elections, Dmitry Medvedev, has the backing of 63 % of voters, state-run VTsIOM pollster said on Wednesday.

Medvedev, a Russian first deputy prime minister, was publicly backed by Putin as his successor in mid-December, and was later nominated by the ruling United Russia party as a presidential candidate for the country's crucial elections.

Given Putin's popularity, his endorsement of the first deputy premier is likely to guarantee Medvedev the presidency. Putin has also said he will accept the post of prime minister if Medvedev becomes president.

According to the poll, of the other three candidates registered to run, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky are expected to receive 7% of the vote each.

The leader of the tiny pro-Western Democratic Party, Andrei Bogdanov, is expected to receive around 1% of the vote.

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