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Duma election was democratic – CIS observers

“We did not notice any particular violations,” - Ishchanov

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) — The election to the State Duma lower house of parliament was held in line with the Russian legislation and was democratic, coordinator from the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, Kairat Ishchanov told Tass on Monday.

“Eight observers from ten countries worked in Moscow,” said Ishchanov, deputy speaker of Kazakhstan’s Senate. The mission visited 58 polling stations, met with representatives of political parties, he added.

“We did not notice any particular violations,” Ishchanov states. “There were technical faults, but they did not influence the course of the voting,” he added. “We believe the election was held in accordance with the Russian legislation on a democratic basis,” he stressed. “The voting proceeded calmly and normally,” Ishchanov said.

Missions of PACE, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Northern Council worked in Russia apart from CIS observers.

According to Polish observer Mateusz Piskorski, international observers have given high marks to the level of preparations and holding of the election. All remarks concern mainly technical drawbacks, which cannot influence the results of the voting, Piskorski said.

U.S. Kline Preston said the election had been open and fair.

Observers from the CIS mission echoed them. According to Azerbaijan’s Rufat Guliyev, “the election was held quite legally and democratically”. “Technically there was certain inaccuracy, which cannot influence the course of the election,” he added.

Ukraine’s Alexei Logvinenko, for his part, noted that representatives of political parties had not informed him about any violations of their rights.

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