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2.0 Politics
2.1 Russian confirm constitutional changes in referendum
With 99.9% of the vote counted, 77.93% of Russians voted for changes to Russia’s constitution and 21.26% against in a referendum on July 1. The turnout was 65%.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the main amendment in focus is that allowing the current President Vladimir Putin to run for another two six-yeas presidential terms in 2024.
The national result tallies with an exit poll run by the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) that found over 70% of the respondents at 800 exit polls who agreed to anonymously share their vote. Out of those 76% supported the amendments and 24% voted against, according to VTsIOM.
Only one region – Nenets Autonomous Okrug that sits on Russia’s extreme far northern coast – had a majority No vote against the amendment package. Nenets is one of Russia’s most sparsely populated regions with only 44,000 residents, who mainly work in the oil industry.
Observers have highlighted some of the most extreme results that strongly suggest the vote was tampered with. With all ballots counted in the Tuva Republic, official figures say that аn eye-watering 97% of those voting said "yes" to Putin's reforms. Other reports revealed how state-owned companies were coordinating and forcing employees to vote for the changes.
Russia started early voting in its controversial referendum on changes to the constitution on June 25 that will reset the presidential term counter for President Vladimir Putin to zero and allow him to remain in office until 2036. Allegations of vote rigging emerged even before the voting began. As bne IntelliNews reported famous Russian statistician Sergey Shpilkin claims that there are already signs of vote rigging in the data on registered voters.
The referendum was to confirm an unprecedented constitutional reform launched by Putin in January 2020 which revamps governance structures ahead of the retirement from his final non-consecutive presidential terms in 2024.
The coverage of the reform has mostly focused on the possible means of Putin retaining power after the 2024 presidential term expiry. The reform was seen as preparing ground for Putin stepping down or moving to other governance position (such as a union state between Russia and Belarus).
However, in an unexpected but clearly orchestrated move, in March the ruling United Russia Party has put forward a constitutional amendment that would remove the limitation on the number of consecutive terms for Russian presidents, allowing Putin to run for office again in 2024 and be re-elected for another two terms until 2036. The amendments were also cleared by the Constitutional Court.
The voter turnout of over 65% and support of 75% is notably higher than previously predicted by polls. Observers surveyed by Vedomosti d aily on July 2 noted that high turnout is likely to be compared by Kremlin to the referendum of 1993 (turnout of less than 55%) as the prove of unity around new values and progress of Putin's Russia.
6 RUSSIA Country Report July 2020 www.intellinews.com
