Anti-Putin forces cry foul over election MOSCOW, March 5 (UPI) -- Opponents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised mass rallies Monday to highlight vote fraud allegations in Putin's presidential election victory. "This is not an election; it's a shame," Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front, a radical socialist group, posted on Twitter. "Once again they spat in our face," his post said, calling for street protests. Other opposition leaders called for demonstrations beyond those allowed by government permits, The New York Times reported. We have gained a clean victory! Putin told thousands of supporters outside the Kremlin Sunday. We won! Putin said with tears running down his cheek. Putin delivered his remarks standing next to Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded him as president in May 2008 and now, in a job swap, has been promised the post of prime minister. With more than 99 percent of ballots counted, Putin had 63.75 percent of the vote, enough to give him a first-round victory, with no runoff, the Central Election Commission said. His nearest rival, Gennady Zyuganov, polled 17.19 percent, the commission said. Three other candidates were in single digits. Zyuganov said the vote was tainted. "It was illegitimate, unfair and not transparent," the Times quoted him as saying. The independent election watchdog Golos, a U.S.-funded non-governmental organization, said Putin won just over 50 percent of the vote. It reported fraud allegations, including "carousel voting," in which the same people cast ballots at multiple locations, and "centralized voting," in which managers of factories, schools, hospitals and other large organizations pressure employees to vote for a specific candidate. In some cases, ballots are collected at the workplace. Putin's campaign chief, Sergei Govorukhin, pronounced the election "the cleanest in the entire history of Russia." Putin, who said his goal was to defend Russia from foreign influences, served two terms as president, from 2000 to 2008, and will now serve a six-year term ending in 2018.