Russia?s parliamentary election, won overwhelmingly by President Vladimir Putin?s (photo) party, was ?not fair,? observers from the OSCE and the Council of Europe said yesterday.

?The State Duma election ... was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections,? the joint observer mission of the two European rights watchdogs said in a statement.

Interfax news agency quoted Igor Borisov, an official with the Central Election Commission, as saying the observers? assessment was politically-driven and ?dictated from abroad.?

Official results with almost all votes counted gave Putin?s United Russia party 64.1 % and two other pro-Kremlin forces another 16%. Pro-Western liberal parties failed to win any seats at all. ?In general the elections were well organised and observers noticed significant technical improvements. However they took place in an atmosphere which seriously limited political competition ... there was not a level political playing field in Russia in 2007?, the statement said.

The ODIHR, monitoring body of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, cancelled plans to field a team to the Duma elections last month after a row with Moscow over delays in issuing visas to observers. This left only small teams drawn from the parliamentary assemblies of both the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

Fewer than 80 politicians from the two groups were trying to monitor an election taking place at 96,000 polling stations in 11 time zones. The observers said in their joint statement that ?frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favour of the ruling party and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism? had tainted the election.

Luc van den Brande, head of the Council of Europe delegation, questioned Putin?s decision to head the United Russia party list.?May I say that for us, it is an unprecedented situation that a sitting President is running in an election,? he said at a news conference.

He added: ?If Russia is a managed democracy, these were managed elections ... Political stability has to go hand in hand with democratic standards. You can never be a truly strong nations without a strong democracy.?

Putin?s spokesman said any criticism from foreign observers would have to be backed up by concrete data.