Kremlin parties poised to win regional elections

MOSCOW, Mar 12 (Reuters) Pro-Kremlin parties are expected to win regional elections which left Russia's weak opposition more marginalised than ever.

United Russia and Fair Russia, the two parties backing President Vladimir Putin, won a combined total of between 55 and 71 per cent of yesterday's vote in 10 of the 14 regions voting, according to a survey by the VTsIOM polling organisation.

The votes for regional assemblies and mayors involved just under a third of the total electorate and were widely regarded as a dry run for national parliamentary elections in December.

Pundits had predicted government parties, buoyed by a strong economy, Kremlin-controlled media, generous funding and Putin's high personal popularity, would sweep the vote.

Critics say the opposition, in retreat since Putin's first presidential win in 2000, never stood a serious chance.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, whose party trailed well behind United Russia with estimated support of between 11 and 25 per cent, alleged numerous violations of electoral rules.

''There have never been such dirty elections in Russia,'' he told journalists.

Liberal opposition parties, ignored by state-controlled media and struggling to find support, were reduced to mounting isolated protests after officials struck them off the ballot in four regions for alleged electoral misdeeds.

VTsIOM's exit poll suggested the liberal Union of Right Forces (SPS) could scrape past a new 7 per cent threshold to win seats in local legislatures in three regions.

ISOLATED PROTESTS In Russia's second city St Petersburg, the small Yabloko opposition party urged supporters to spoil their ballot papers to protest at the party's exclusion from the election. Officials claimed some of the signatures on Yabloko's registration documents were forged, a charge the party denied.

''We will not recognise this election, which we believe is not legitimate,'' Maxim Reznik, head of Yabloko's St Petersburg branch, told Reuters.

VTsIOM's exit poll suggested Yabloko would not pass the 7 per cent hurdle in any of the 10 regions it surveyed.

Political analysts say the main interest was how United Russia would fare against Fair Russia, a pro-government rival party created last year from the merger of three smaller groups.

In most regions United Russia dominated. But in at least three areas including St Petersburg and the district surrounding it, Fair Russia won more than 20 per cent, according to the exit poll.

Political analysts say the carefully managed contest is intended to create an illusion of choice for voters while cementing the Kremlin's dominance over political life before a presidential election in March 2008.

United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov said after polls closed that he would consider coalitions with Fair Russia in areas where neither party had a majority.

Yesterday's voting was generally calm. Police arrested several protesters from a fringe group who threw a smoke grenade into a polling station in Moscow's western suburb of Odintsovo.

Police also detained three photographers, including a Reuters cameraman, who were filming the arrests. After six hours in the police station they were freed without charge.

Reuters DKS VP0532