Putin extends 24-year reign, secures fifth term as Russia’s president

President Vladimir Putin is leading the 2024 Russian presidential election with a landslide.

According to Reuters, exit polls showed that Putin is leading with 88 percent of the votes to trounce Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, who trails with four per cent.

Vladislav Davankov, candidate of the New People’s Party, scored 3.85 percent, while Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) trailed with just 3.1 percent.

Putin, who has been in power since 2000, is set to secure another six-year term that would enable him to become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.

After his second tenure ended in 2008, he served as prime minister for another four years before becoming president again in 2012.

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Subsequently, the president drafted a constitutional amendment that extended the presidential term from four to six years in Russia.

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron has condemned the election in Russia which saw President Vladimir Putin tighten his grip on power following the stifling of any real opposition.

Independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited, with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, not invited to observe the three-day vote.

Reacting to the conduct of the election, Cameron in a tweet on his official page, said, “this is not what free and fair elections look like”.

He wrote, “The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.”