Russia has Putin Forever Now and Venezuela Will Probably Have Chavez Forever Too

by BigT | December 2, 2007 at 01:55 pm

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The Russians have spoken and they want to keep their fearless dictator:

MOSCOW (AP) - Early results showed Vladimir Putin’s
party winning more than 60 percent of the vote Sunday in a
parliamentary election that could pave the way for him to remain the
country’s leader even when he steps down as president.

The vote followed a Kremlin campaign that relied on a combination of persuasion and intimidation to ensure victory for Putin’s United Russia party.

With ballots from about 30 percent of precincts counted, United
Russia was leading with 63.6 percent, while the Communists—the only
opposition party expected to get seats—were in a distant second with
11.3 percent, said Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov.

Two other pro-Kremlin parties—the Liberal Democratic Party and Just
Russia were following with 10.6 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively,
he said.

The Kremlin has portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin’s
nearly eight years as president—with the promise that a major victory
would allow him somehow to remain as leader after his second term ends
next year.

Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third
consecutive term, but he clearly wants to stay in power. Many
supporters have suggested his becoming a “national leader,” though what
duties and powers that would entail are unclear.

“The vote affirmed the main idea: that Vladimir Putin is the
national leader, that the people support his course, and this course
will continue,” said party leader and parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov
said after the exit polls were announced.

Pollsters said United Russia’s performance would give it a crushing
majority of 306 seats in the 450-seat State Duma, or lower house. The
Communists would have 57 seats.

The opposition accused the Kremlin of rigging the vote, with
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov calling the election “the most
irresponsible and dirty” in the post-Soviet era.

For Russia’s increasingly isolated opposition movement, the election
was more evidence of Russia’s drift away from political pluralism and
democracy.

“The fact is, they’re not just rigging the vote. They’re raping the
democratic system,” said former chess champion and opposition leader
Garry Kasparov.

Kasparov, who was jailed for five days after a protest last weekend,
spoiled his ballot by writing on it “Other Russia,” the name of his
opposition umbrella group.

All seats will be awarded according to the percentage of the vote
each party receives; in previous elections, half the seats were chosen
among candidates contesting a specific district, allowing a few
mavericks to get in. About 109 million people are eligible to vote.

Putin has presided over Russia’s transformation from a poor, chaotic
country to a relatively prosperous, stable nation earning $800 million
a day in oil and gas revenues.

He has cast the election as a contest between Russian patriots and
“foreign-fed jackals” who he claimed would, at the behest of the West,
return Russia to the poverty and instability of the 1990s.

Echoing the same paranoia of the American bogeyman Hugo Chavez seems, at least in my mind, poised to solidify his corrupt power base.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez would
take on expanded powers and have a shot at being president for life
under constitutional changes being considered by Venezuelans Sunday in
a vote that raised tensions in South America’s top oil exporter.

An emboldened opposition and recent violent clashes involving
protesters point to a potentially volatile dispute if the vote is
close, as some pollsters predict.

“I’m very sure that everything is going to go very well,” Chavez
said after voting, holding his newborn grandson in his arms. “We’re
going to accept the results, whatever they are.”

Lines snaked outside many polling stations, and Information Minister
Willian Lara said across the country there was “a massive turnout.”
Voters were awakened in Caracas by fireworks exploding in the pre-dawn
sky and reveille blaring from speakers mounted on cruising trucks.

Chavez has warned opponents he will not tolerate attempts to stir up
violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if
Washington interferes. His country is a major supplier to the United
States, which in turn is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.

Chavez, who has become Latin America’s most outspoken antagonist of
Washington since he was first elected in 1998, calls the constitutional
overhaul vital to making Venezuela a socialist state. He labels those
who resist it pawns of President Bush.

Venezuelans across the political spectrum saw the referendum as a
turning point. Some Chavez opponents described it as a protest vote—and
a point of no return.

“This is our last chance to change things,” said Judith Padova, a
57- year-old housewife who lined up among about 300 voters in the
Caracas neighborhood of Los Ruices.

Sunday is usually suppose to be a day where you can enjoy your
family and praise the Lord. But this Sunday is shaping up to be more
like a day of mourning. BigT