Putin's absolute victory with huge votes

International desk: The current president of the country, Vladimir Putin, has won the presidential election of Russia by a large margin. In this election, about 87 percent of the votes are in his favor. Prior to this, voting was held in the country for three consecutive days.

This ensured Putin's stay in power for another 6 years. Al Jazeera reported this information in a report on Monday (March 18).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has consolidated his power with a landslide victory in the just-concluded election, according to reports. However, this election has been widely criticized due to the crisis of democratic legitimacy.

In a post-election press conference, Putin cited the result as a reflection of his decision to ignore the Western world and invade Ukraine.

"No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, who or how much they want to suppress us, our determination, our spirit - no one in history has succeeded in doing that,"

Putin said in a speech from his campaign headquarters early Monday.

In his words, 'It (the West's strategy) is not working yet and will not work in the future.

Al Jazeera reports that early results, shortly after the end of the vote on Sunday, indicated that Putin would extend his current rule for another six years.

According to Russia's Central Election Commission, Putin won about 87 percent of the vote after nearly 60 percent of constituencies were counted. And the result means Putin, 71, will surpass Joseph Stalin in terms of tenure and become Russia's longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.

On the other hand, preliminary results indicated that communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov was in second place with just under 4 percent of the vote, newcomer Vladislav Davankov was third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky was fourth.

Voter turnout across Russia was 74.22 percent when polls closed on Sunday after three consecutive days of voting, election officials said. This election has more votes than 2018. The voter turnout in the 2018 elections was 67.5 percent.

Al Jazeera says there was never any doubt about Putin's victory in the election. Because most of his critics are either in jail, in exile, or dead. Public criticism of Putin has also been suppressed.

The main challenger to the Russian president, Alexei Navalny, died last month in the country's Arctic prison.

However, the US said the vote was not free or fair. A spokesman for the White House's National Security Council said the election was clearly not free or fair, given the way Putin imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a post on social media platform X that the vote was "not a free and fair election". And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, "This election fraud has no legitimacy and cannot be".

It should be noted that President Vladimir Putin contested as an independent candidate in this election. With the victory, he will now be president for the fifth time and in that case his term of power will be extended till 2030.

He will also hold the record for the longest tenure as President of Russia. Currently, the record holders for the longest tenure of Russian presidency are Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Both were in power for 24 years during the former Soviet era.

Former Soviet Union intelligence agency KGP lieutenant colonel Putin became the first president of Russia in 1999. The then Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999, handing over power to Putin.

Later, in the 2000 presidential election, Putin won the presidential election for the first time with 53 percent of the vote. In the 2004 election, he got 71.3 percent of the votes and became the president again.

If Putin, now 71, can remain president until 2030, his total term in power will reach 30 years.