FRAUD IN THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

That this House notes the report of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe Observer Mission to the first round of the Russian presidential elections which registers gross media bias in favour of President Yeltsin, denial of facilities such as meeting places to opposition candidates, significant electoral fraud, failure to provide facilities for voters to fill in ballot papers in secret, discrepancies between the numbers of votes cast and electoral registers, and others; further notes that the election in Chechnya, where it is claimed that President Yeltsin received more than 64 per cent. of the vote, his highest total in the entire country, was not a free or fair election; notes that now that a second round of voting is confirmed, in which the outcome could conceivably be determined by a small number of votes, it is important that the shortcomings mentioned above in the behaviour of the media, the conduct of the election campaign, and the polling day procedures be addressed as a matter of urgency and that the Observer Mission also believes that the early official publication of the voting figures in polling stations would do much to enhance the transparency of the electoral process; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to make representations to the Russian government that it carry out in full the recommendations of the CSCE for a free and fair second round of the presidential election.