Press Release, 13.09.2019

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Peterburg, with elected deputies of the Vladimirsky municipal district of St.Petersburg

The electoral commissions of the municipalities of the Vladimirsky district and the Liteiny district confirmed the victory of Yabloko. The voting results of the electoral commissions could not be drawn up for several days. In the Vladimirsky region, the victory of Yabloko was confirmed only after a voters gathering, the party received 12 mandates out of 20, the following candidates were elected deputies: Yelena Andrusenko, Yevgeny Toporov, Alexander Koretsky, Valery Shaposhnikov, Denis Tikhonenko, Dmitry Prytkov, Vitaly Bovar, Elizaveta Silayeva, Ilya Stadnik , Irina Gaysina, Denis Smirnykh and Denis Lugovsky.

In the Liteiny district, the electoral commission sabotaged the tabulation of the election results for four days, only on 13 September the commission recognised the elections valid. Yabloko received 11 mandates from 20. The following Yabloko candidates became deputies: Vladislav Volsky, Yegor Karpenkov, Arseny Afinogenov, Sofya Chistyakova, Ani Petrs, Igor Lisovsky, Dmitry Markevich, Philip Pogorelov, Sergey Troshin, Kirill Khodakov and Dmitry Ertman.

Dmitry Ertman won an equal number of votes with Svetlana Ivanova, candidate from United Russia, which happened for the first time in the history of the St. Petersburg elections. Each candidate received 452 votes. In such cases, a draw procedure is envisaged, and the Yabloko candidate won it.

Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, recalled that dozens of candidates (now recognised deputies) spent four days in the administration of the Central District and by the buildings where electoral commissions were located, seeking approval of the election results.

“We showed that we will not surrender or give up, defending our victory and the will of the voters. We were one big, reliable and cool team. I am sure that we will continue to work in the same way,” Boris Vishnevsky emphasised.

“Behind us is a huge confidence of voters. We must justify it by working for them. Change is inevitable. Residents of our city want it. They clearly expressed this in their vote. The time of the current regime ends – no matter how much it resists. A new time is coming – our time,” Vishnevsky added.

It should be noted that on 12 September, the electoral commission of the municipality of Smolninskoye approved the election results. The victory in the municipality, on the territory of which the building of the government of St. Petersburg is located, was won by candidates from Yabloko. Yabloko candidates headed by Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Chair of the party branch in St.Petersburg, got seven mandates there, activists of the movement “The Central District for a Comfortable Living Environment” obtained six mandates and the activists from the headquarters of politician Alexei Navalny got three mandates. However, on the same day, the Smolninsky court received a lawsuit from the daughter of the head of the administration of the municipality who was asking to cancel the election results.

It should be noted that Yabloko nominated more than 400 candidates for municipal deputies of St. Petersburg. So far, it is reported that about 100 candidates have been able to become deputies. However, the data have not been entered into the GAS Vybory system [the federal data base on voting in all elections] in a significant part of the municipal districts where the Yabloko won for almost two days. In many municipalities, the election results have not yet been announced. In a number of municipalities in St. Petersburg, election results were rigged, and mandates were stolen.