Moscow, Sep 10 (AP) Russian authorities on Sunday reported a number of makes an attempt to sabotage voting in native elections going down in occupied areas of Ukraine.

Votes are going down this weekend in 79 areas of Russia, with ballots for governors, regional legislatures, metropolis and municipal councils, in addition to within the 4 Ukrainian areas Moscow annexed illegally final 12 months — the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia provinces — and on the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.

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Balloting within the occupied areas of Ukraine has been denounced by Kyiv and the West as a sham and a violation of worldwide regulation.

Russian electoral officers on Sunday reported makes an attempt to sabotage voting within the occupied areas, the place guerrilla forces loyal to Kyiv had beforehand killed pro-Moscow officers, blown up bridges and helped the Ukrainian navy by figuring out key targets.

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A drone strike within the early hours of Sunday destroyed one polling station within the Zaporizhzhia province, deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Election Commission Nikolai Bulaev instructed reporters. He stated no employees have been on the station on the time of the assault.

A Russian-appointed official within the neighbouring Kherson area stated {that a} dwell grenade was found on Saturday close to a polling station there. Marina Zakharova stated the grenade was hidden in bushes exterior the station, and that voting needed to be halted whereas emergency companies disposed of it.

Moscow has partially occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia since early within the battle. Ukrainian forces have since retaken Kherson’s namesake native capital, and are urgent a counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia that has been making gradual progress.

Local residents and Ukrainian activists have alleged that Russian ballot staff make home calls accompanied by armed troopers in each provinces, detaining those that refuse to vote and pressuring them into writing “explanatory statements” that could be used as grounds for a criminal case.

In Russia itself, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s seat is up for grabs, although he is running for re-election again and is unlikely to lose a race in which all contenders come from Kremlin-backed parties. Sobyanin was appointed mayor in 2010 and has since won mayoral elections twice: in 2013, despite now-imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny running against him, and 2018. Governors in 20 other Russian regions are also vying for office this year.

In 16 Russian regions, voters are casting ballots for local legislatures. There are also multiple votes for city and municipal councils across the country and races for a few vacant seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.

In the majority of the Russian regions and in the occupied regions of Ukraine, polls opened on Friday and the voting lasts for three days, concluding Sunday. In other regions, voters can only cast their ballot on Sunday.

In over 20 Russian regions, including Moscow, online voting has been enacted, despite wide criticism by opposition figures who say it lacks transparency and could easily be rigged. It has also been made available in Crimea.

Ella Pamfilova, who heads Russia’s Central Election Commission, told reporters on Sunday that more than 3 million Russians in 25 regions have voted online. Pamfilova also said that over 20,000 cyberattacks were attempted on the online voting system on Friday and Saturday, without elaborating on their consequences.

There are hardly any exciting races, notes political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, mainly because “the most important issue in Russian politics — the issue of war and peace — is not on the agenda at all.”

“The voter feels that, the voter sees that it’s not interesting,” Gallyamov, who once worked as a speechwriter for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told The Associated Press in an interview.

He said no one wants to campaign in favor of the war because it is not popular and it would affect their poll ratings. At the same time, it is impossible to campaign against the war because “you’ll be barred from operating, thrown in jail and named the enemy of the nation. So all candidates keep away from this challenge.

“The voters feel that the elections are not about what is actually real and important. The turnout will be minimal. These are empty elections,” Gallyamov said. (AP)

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