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Global Pulse: Worried about turnout, the Russian govt is enticing voters with selfie competitions

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Voting Day Holiday

The Russian elections are on Sunday, and while there is no doubt that Vladimir Putin will emerge as president for his fourth term, the Kremlin is worried about voter turnout. “And with concerns that Putin’s appeal alone may not be enough to get out the vote, officials across the country are experimenting with raffles, competitions and the occasional referendum – like one in Volgograd that asks voters whether they want to change time zones – all in an effort to ensure Putin wins with greater support than in 2012,” writes Andrew Roth in The Guardian.

“The 2018 election may already go down as one of Russia’s most bizarre and inert. The president can’t be bothered to star in his own campaign adverts, the Communist party’s candidate, Pavel Grudunin, is a millionaire and former member of the ruling party, some Putin opponents consulted the Kremlin before announcing their presidential bids, and the most prominent opposition politician in the country – Alexei Navalny – has been barred from running.”

And still, despite the obvious staging of this Potemkin election, commentators and opposition members say that the government’s legitimacy is on the line. “The Kremlin must walk a tightrope in this election: garnering enough support to confirm its validity, while avoiding the kinds of strong-arm tactics that prompted widespread anti-government protests after parliamentary elections in 2011. And to achieve that, authorities aim to create a “holiday-like atmosphere” on voting day,” writes Roth.

Raffles, selfie competitions, and lucky draws are some tricks of the trade. The Russian edition of Maxim for this month is splashed generously with pin-up models, to get young men to the polls. This “Only for Adults” edition has produced a significant backlash, but nevertheless was some sort of campaign strategy.

“So far, the person who seemed least enthused by the campaign was Putin himself, who until the stadium rally this month had barely altered his routine of visits to factories and local governments around Russia,” writes Roth. ““He is not that interested in the campaign,” a person close to the Kremlin said in the early stages of his re-election bid. “He expects his subordinates to make sure that everything goes smoothly. And if it doesn’t, then they’ll shoulder the blame.””

Crown Prince Modern

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on a mission to charm the west, the Washington Post editorializes. His radical changes and attempts to modernise are welcome. “Saudi women will finally be allowed to drive in June, and guardianship rules controlling them have been loosened. Religious police have been reined in, and cinemas are opening,” the editorial board writes.

The problem, however, is that these steps have been “accompanied by even bolder acts of repression.”

“Those in the West who support the cause of Saudi modernization, and businesspeople who may wish to invest in it, badly need reassurance. Fortunately, there is a ready way for the crown prince to offer it, even before he arrives in Washington: He can release some of the dozens of political prisoners who were jailed for advocating some of the very reforms he is attempting to advance.”

“The same goes for members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, who called for political reforms and the reinterpretation of Islamic law. A court dissolved the group in 2013, and most of its members remain imprisoned. So, too, do Mohammed al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi, who were sentenced to long prison terms in January for founding a human rights organization, the Union for Human Rights, in 2013.”

If his modernising if working, why does he need to imprison peaceful advocates of modernisation?

Elections in Hong Kong disappoint

Six seats have been vacant in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The Economist writes that the seats being empty in the first place is an “affront to the city’s pro-democracy movement”. “In the by-elections to fill four of the vacancies, on March 11th, the democrats suffered a further setback. Their candidates lost two of the four seats, one of them unexpectedly, depriving them of much of their legislative clout.”

Although only 2,400 votes, or around 1% of the total, separated the two main candidates, the loss of the seat in Kowloon West is still worrying to the pro-democracy camp, because that particular seat was an expected win for the democrats. “For Ma Ngok of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the result shows that advocating greater political freedom is not enough to secure victory. Its supporters are losing faith in the power of their vote, and staying at home, whereas the richer pro-China parties are good at getting their supporters to the polling booths.”

“The last two vacant seats in Legco cannot be filled until their former occupants have exhausted their appeals. If those disqualifications are upheld, there will be two more by-elections. It is not clear whether the former incumbents would run, or how they would perform. But it does seem certain that in future the democrats will have to put up even more of a fight just to maintain the status quo.”

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