Russia holds a day of reflection

Russia keeps on Saturday a day of reflection ahead of parliamentary elections this Sunday, considered a dress rehearsal for the presidential election in March 2012 and a clear favorite to win: the ruling party United Russia (RU).

As required by law from voting after midnight were banned election propaganda activities throughout the country and so far, according to authorities, there have been no notable irregularities. "We have not received any information that might be disturbing," said the press secretary of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Nikolai Konkin.

Almost 110 million Russians are called to the polls Sunday to elect 450 members of the Duma, the lower house of parliament in elections in which for the first time in post-Soviet Russian history involving all legally registered political parties , which are seven.

All the members of the Duma are elected by party lists, that to access the proportional allocation of seats required to obtain at least 7% of the votes cast. In addition, the training they get between 5% and 7% of the votes entitled to a seat.

The polls agree that RU, the list is headed by the outgoing president, Dmitri Medvedev will get absolute majority in the Duma, but you will lose a significant amount of seats and, with them, the qualified majority of two thirds required for approval of constitutional law.

Also maintained and increased its representation by the Communist Party, which has emerged as the second electoral force, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party and the Social Just Russia. According to all surveys, training and liberal Yabloko Just Cause, like the nationalist Russian Patriots, are outside the parliamentary spectrum.

While no one doubts the victory of United Russia, the great intrigue of tomorrow's election is in many of the 302 seats lose that training is now official. From these results depend on the political future of Medvedev, who is running for the post of prime minister once he leaves the Kremlin if, as is taken for granted, the former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, won the March presidential 2012.

The opposition has alleged numerous irregularities during the election campaign and the leaders of the Communist Party and Fair Russia have even threatened to pull their supporters to the streets in case of election fraud. "There are growing signs that the Sunday there will be numerous irregularities and that the authorities are preparing different methods of direct falsification of the elections," said Andrei Yurevich, an expert with the nongovernmental organization defending the right to vote "Golos".

The director of the NGO, Lilia Shibánova, was arrested early today for several hours in the Sheremetevo Moscow airport customs on arrival in Warsaw. The day before, a Moscow court sentenced "Golos" to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles, about $ 1,000 for publishing more than 4,500 reports of alleged illegal tactics in the campaigns leading up to parliamentary elections this Sunday.

"Pursuing an electoral observation organization when elections are held is not right. The only thing it serves is to damage our image, 'he told the Interfax news agency the head of the Human Rights Commission attached to the Kremlin, Mikhail Fedotov.