Russian election watchdog Golos has accused the ruling United Russia party of numerous violations during their primaries in May, the RBC news website reported Wednesday.
Opposition party Parnas were also criticized in a report published on the group's website.
Putin's United Russia party repeatedly breached election protocol in 22 of the 35 regions monitored by Golos, RBC reported. Officials and public employees were involved in organizing primaries and rallies in 20 regions, while voter bribery, ballot stuffing and carousel voting were detected in 15 regions. Voters also had their right to a secret ballot violated, Golos said.
The organization also accused United Russia and opposition party Parnas of failing to protect voters' personal data.
The names and phone numbers of Parnas voters were leaked after the party's online database was targeted by hackers May 29. Golos blamed the party's leadership and inadequate online security measures for the attack, which led to the primaries being annulled.
United Russia primaries also saw data protection laws being broken across nine regions, RBC reported.
The organization is now calling for primaries to be regulated at the legislative level, RBC reported.
