Vladimir Putin wins fourth term as President of Russia

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Yesterday, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia declared incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner of Sunday's presidential elections amidst heavy criticism from opposition groups and western media. Although the results were preliminary and not all votes counted, Putin's lead was insurmountable and he was declared the winner.

According to the CEC, Putin won nearly 77% of the popular vote, running as an independent despite his preceding longtime affiliation with the United Russia party. In second place was Pavel Grudinin, the candidate for the Communist Party, who received just under 12% of the vote. The CEC reported a turnout above 67% of all eligible voters.

Before official results were announced, Putin held a victory celebration in the Manezhnaya Square in Moscow on Sunday night. Hours after the final polling stations closed, he was on stage before a large crowd leading them in patriotic chants. "It's very important to maintain this unity", said Putin. "We will think about the future of our great Motherland".

Foreign news media have been heavily critical of the election. Numerous CCTV recordings appear to show ballot stuffing. State television in Russia have claimed many video recordings to be fake. The Moscow Times reported, Russian citizens living abroad but eligible to vote had a turnout of 98% and 84% of those voted for Putin.

The OSCE, which had observers in Russia for the election, said there was a "lack of genuine competition" because of "[r]estrictions on the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression", but the CEC had operated "efficiently and openly".

Vladimir Putin first became President of Russia in 1999. He has held the office since then except for one term when Dmitry Medvedev was in office due to term-limit restrictions. The presidential term in Russia is six years but it was four years during Putin's first two terms.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sister links

Russian presidential election, 2018

Sources

Kirill Zykov. "Putin Wins Presidency With Historic Record Number of Votes, Results Say" — The Moscow Times, March 19, 2018
David Mercer. "Vladimir Putin wins fourth term as Russian President with 77% of vote" — Sky News, March 19, 2018
Mariya Petkova. "Russia: President Putin easily wins new six-year term" — Al Jazeera, March 19, 2018
Sarah Rainsford. "Russia election: Putin basks in election he could not lose" — BBC News, March 19, 2018
"Preliminary results of voting in the election of the President of the Russian Federation" — Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, March 19, 2018 (Russian)
"Vladimir Putin Biography" — Biography.com, Updated: March 19, 2018

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License