Cameron in a tweet on his official social media page, also alleged that elections held on Ukrainian territory
By Kehinde Okeowo
British Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron has described the recently conducted Russian election, which saw President Vladimir Putin tighten his grip on power, as a poll that is neither fair nor free.
He made the comment on his X handle, after early results showed on Sunday that Putin won nearly 88% of the vote cast in the election.
The result so far announced by Russia’s Central Election Commission would be a record for Putin, extending his nearly quarter-of-a-century rule for another six-year term.
The president had only three candidates challenging him in the poll, with several reports indicating that the candidates were those who had not criticised his rule nor his invasion of Ukraine.
All other serious challengers were reportedly taken out of the way before voting commenced.
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Apart from this, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited, with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, not invited to observe the three-day vote.
Meanwhile, his arch foe, Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison last month, while other critics of the president’s rule are either in jail or in exile.
Reacting to the conduct of the election, Cameron in a tweet on his official page, noted that elections held on Ukrainian territory
He tweeted, “The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring.
“This is not what free and fair elections look like.”