Moscow ? With the Kremlin determined to see a high turnout in Sunday’s election, many Russians say they are being pressured to vote at work under the watchful eyes of their bosses or risk losing their jobs.

They say they also are being told to provide lists of relatives and friends who will vote for United Russia, the party of President Vladimir Putin.

United Russia is expected to win. But Putin has turned the parliamentary elections into a plebiscite on his rule, and the Kremlin appears to be pushing for nothing short of a landslide.

The constitution requires Putin to step down as president in May, but with the support of the majority of Russians he could claim a popular mandate to retain power.

“The plebiscite will become a mockery if only slightly more than half of the people vote and if only 60 percent of those vote for United Russia,” as the latest opinion polls predict, political analyst Alexei Makarkin said.

In the push to get out the vote, the absentee ballot has become a popular new tool.

A teacher in St. Petersburg said administration told staff members to get absentee ballots from their neighborhood polling stations ahead of the election. They are to vote together Sunday at a polling station at the school.

“They didn’t tell us necessarily to vote for United Russia, but you can read between the lines,” said the teacher, who was willing to give only her first name, Yelena, out of fear of being fired.

Similar accounts have been given by teachers, doctors, factory workers and others. Some have said they were warned they would lose their jobs if they did not comply.

Hundreds of people have called an election hot line to complain about the use of absentee ballots, the Central Elections Commission said in a summary of the complaints posted on its Web site.

Some complaints came from hospital patients, who said they had been threatened with early discharge if they did not produce absentee ballots.