THE MOVE BY the Russian government to introduce more transparency into its elections has had some unintended consequences this weekend.
As almost 200,000 cameras were installed at 91,000 polling stations across the country for yesterday’s presidential election, some of them picked up activities before the polls opened.
As The Telegraph reports this included dancers revelling under the disco lights at a venue in Kirov where pounding techno music can be heard just hours before the venue was transformed into a polling station.
YouTube: StrekalovStas
Agence France Presse reports that other videos showed schools in session on Saturday where boys were fighting and rolling on the floor. At a polling station in Moscow, a couple were showing kissing on a bench set up in the hall next to the ballot box.
It goes on to report that election monitors have said the footage from the cameras will be difficult to use in court as evidence as most cameras were set up too far away from ballot boxes.
Prime Minster Vladimir Putin triumphed in the poll as was widely expected. However, while the electoral commission said he had got 64 per cent of the vote, one election monitoring agency said he won just over 50 per cent amid widespread allegations of ballot-box stuffing.
