IN THE world's most crucial election for decades, 106 million Russians are entitled to go to the polls tomorrow at 93,000 polling stations to elect a president whose powers are greater than those of the leader of any western democracy.
The election takes place against the background of charges that the result will be falsified either by supporters of President Yeltsin or by those, who favour the communist candidate, Mr Gennady Zyuganov and there is now little doubt that the losing side will call "foul" after the result is announced.
More than 1,000 foreign observers will be present, a ratio of one observer to 93 polling stations which means that the vast majority of stations will not be observed by experts from outside Russia.
The counting procedure differs from that in the west, in that ballot boxes are not brought to counting centres but each polling station does its own count and then posts its results by a "protocol" to a central computer which will collate the national result. If no candidate wins more than 50 per cent, a second round between the two leading candidates will be held in July.
Mr Zyuganov claims that this result will be falsified by pro-Yeltsin forces while Yeltsin supporters claim the communists, who intend to put 2,000 observers into the field will rig the vote. The liberal candidate, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, believes vote rigging will be conducted by both camps.
Independent experts differ in their views. The political correspondent of the quality newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazetu, Ms Marina Shakina, told The Irish Times that if falsification did take place it could only bed on a minor scale, but her colleague Mr Andrei Poleshchuk, who deals with security matters and edits the paper's military supplement, thought otherwise.
"In this country everything is possible and I believe the results could be falsified electronically", he said. Russia's secret service monolith, the KGB, has been broken up into a number of organisations including the little known FAPSI under Gen Alexander Staroviov which according to Poleshchuk, deals with electronic intelligence and works with the most highly sophisticated equipment to monitor and interfere with communications.
But members of the intelligence services are at present bitterly divided in their political allegiances and should interference take place it would be difficult to know which side would be favoured.
The prize at stake is a vast one. The president dominates the political life of Russia and is limited to two four year terms. He nominates the government, chairs cabinet meetings, can dismiss the prime minister and government and can, if he wishes, rule by decree, by passing parliament on important issues. He can also veto legislation passed by parliament and his veto can be overturned only by a two thirds majority.
Parliament has the power to impeach the president for high treason or a major crime but the procedure is so complicated as to be unworkable.
