In the run-up to the Russian "referendum" of July 1, my personal hit-parade of fake elections and referenda. At No. 5 are Azerbaijan's 2013 Presidential elections, featuring the tyrant-for-life Ilham Aliyev and my dear friend and fellow historian Jamil Hasanli.
The Central Election Commission actually released the election results *before* the voting started. The results gave Aliyev 72% of the vote (the CEC claimed it was just "testing" the equipment 😂): independent.co.uk/news/world/eur….
At No. 4 are the fake Polish elections of 1947, "free and unfettered," as foreseen by Yalta. The completely falsified results gave the Communists a landslide victory (at 80%). The electoral fraud was assisted by the Soviet Ministry of State Security.
At No. 3 I'll put Turkmenistan's legislative elections of 2017. The results were completely falsified as, I assume, were all other Turkmen elections. What makes these special? I personally witnessed the fraud. It was quite a show! I wrote about it here: journalofdemocracy.org/articles/turkm…
No. 2 is the Mongolian referendum of 1945, in which a 100% (yes, every single person) voted for independence from China. There's no doubt that if they held an honest referendum,the vast majority would've voted for independence. But they cheated because that was just what you did.
What's special about it is that even the Soviet Embassy in Mongolia was appalled by the fake referendum, and suggested, in their report to Moscow, that they should not have done anything so silly for fear of losing credibility. Oh well. Attaching the Embassy's report here. 
This leaves No. 1. Leaving it blank here because there is a contender coming up - Putin's July 1 referendum.
