MOSCOW - U.S. voters will choose a president next week using a flawed and undemocratic system, says the man known as "The Magician" by opposition leaders over his stewardship of Russian elections they say were marred by fraud.
“The U.S. presidential election is not direct, not universal
and not equal, and it does not safeguard the secrecy of voting,”
Vladimir Churov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin who
heads Russia’s Central Election Commission, wrote in the
government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“The electoral system and electoral laws in the United
States are far from perfect. They are contradictory, archaic and
do not correspond to the democratic principles the United States
has declared as the basis of its foreign and domestic politics.”
Churov has dismissed allegations of widespread fraud in a
parliamentary election won by Putin’s party last December and
says the president’s victory in a presidential election last
March reflected the popular will.
The conduct of elections in Russia, which emerged from
decades of communist rule in 1991, has regularly been criticised
by foreign observers, including from Europe and the United
States.
But Churov, turning the tables on Russia’s critics, said
faults in the U.S. electoral system included the methods of
registering and identifying voters, insufficient election
monitoring and questionable mechanisms of casting ballots.
Russian officials remain sensitive to U.S. criticism of
Moscow’s domestic policies and are not slow to respond in kind
when the opportunity arises, despite attempts by U.S. President
Barack Obama – in a tight re-election race against Republican
challenger Mitt Romney – to reset ties four years ago.
The former Cold War foes still disagree on a number of
issues ranging from the conflict in Syria to missile defence.
