OSCE monitors said that half of the counts they observed should have been thrown out, and reported ballot-box stuffing and intimidation.
There is scant chance, however, that the ruling cabal will respond to protesters' anger over reported ballot-stuffing in favour of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party at the parliamentary vote on December 4. "What you have to grasp is that the Kremlin, and Putin in particular, deeply despise public opinion," said Dmitry Oreshkin, a Moscow-based political analyst, in a telephone interview.
They also reported ballot-box stuffing and intimidation.In this section The periphery cannot hold The Han that rock the cradle No entry Central Asia's Putin How to damage India's reputation Trouble at home ReprintsTajikistan has never had an election that was judged fair by independent observers.
One reason that such a high percentage of the total reported ballots will be subject to the fraud review is the large number of votes reported by nonexistent polling places, one Western diplomat said.
One monitor reported "widespread ballot stuffing" in another part of Rivers.
In the wild east, where some clans are no fans of Somaliland, there are more serious reports: ballot boxes have been blocked and a female electoral commission staffer (first worryingly described as an "election observer" in reports) shot dead.
The networks were continually changing that total as each county reported overseas ballots to the state.
The controversial plan is being trialled at the Manchester Evening News, with the intention of rolling it across the group in January, with the newspaper's chapel expected to report its ballot on strike action next week.
But international observers reported cases of ballot box stuffing and vote buying, while a group of candidates vowed to challenge the result even before polls had closed on Sunday.
Rana Rahimpour, a bilingual reporter for BBC World Service and BBC Persian TV who monitored the broadcast from London, reported that the ballot for June 14 approved by the Islamic Republic's Guardian Council would include just eight of the hundreds of men who registered as candidates this month.
Lawyers representing Raila Odinga, who came second, claim the vote was rigged, with some polling stations reporting more ballots cast than registered voters.
