Press release, 05.12.2016

The YABLOKO party will appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Electoral Commission on the facts of election fraud in the city of Mytishchi, the Moscow Region, revealed by newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Today the newspaper has published its investigation demonstrating that the results of the election to the State Duma and the Duma of the Moscow Region that took place on 18 September were faked at least 70 per cent of polling stations.

Journalists of Novaya Gazeta dispose of voting protocols given to observers from 84 of the 96 polling stations of the city and they have compared them with the data on votes submitted to the GAS Vibory (the state electronic system for automatic counting of election results) and found that the results of voting at 68 polling stations differed from the official result. Several dozen of the votes cast in each of the polling station for the YABLOKO party and other non-parliamentary parties turned out to be attributed to United Russia in the GAS Vibory system. Consequently, in Mytishchi only YABLOKO lost 581 votes at the State Duma election and 255 votes in the election to the Duma of the Moscow Region.

Novaya Gazeta asks to consider the article as statement on committing a crime under Article 142 of the Criminal Code “Ballot rigging”. The newspaper demands to declare the elections in Mytishchi invalid and verify the conformity of the protocols given to observers with the data submitted to the GAS Vibory system in all the polling stations of the Moscow region. According to Novaya Gazeta, the Electoral Commission of the Moscow Region which allowed for vote rigging must be dissolved, and public prosecutor’s investigation of the administration of Governor of Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov should be conducted. YABLOKO joins these demands and will send appeals from the party to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Electoral Commission.

According to YABLOKO Chair Emilia Slabunova, judging by the variety of fraud on 18 September, “[we can speak about] further development and elabouration of the technology of fraud, rather than an attempt to achieve a definite result. Apparently, it was very important to rehearse the use of these technologies before the coming presidential election”. The sophisticated nature of fraud in Mytishchi “shows the desire to make it in a less cynical and balnt manner as it was in 2011, make it less noticeable. Technologies aimed at ensuring the legitimacy of the election are being developed”.

“This once again confirms the correctness of our stance on the non-recognition of the voting results, the results of the elections,” says Emilia Slabunova.

“This is another proof that the results of the elections in Russia on 18 September were not such as announced by the Central Electoral Commission. We will continue collecting data on violations across the country. Despite the resistance of the Central Electoral Commission and the Supreme Court, we will prove that it is necessary to hold a new election – really free and fair,” Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of YABLOKO, noted.

Last week the Supreme Court refused to satisfy the claim of the YABLOKO party on cancelling the results of the elections to the State Duma. YABLOKO will challenge the decision in a higher court.

The video https://youtu.be/j0NW6mLjiss