| Today the European Court of Human Rights admitted the
complaint on the results of parliamentary elections of 2003
submitted by YABLOKO, CPRF and several individuals including
Sergei Ivanenko, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Irina Khakamada, Garry
Kasparov, Vladimir Solovyov and journalists Eugeni Kiselyov
and Dmitry Muratov. The claim will be examined at the Court’s
meeting shortly.
Now the plaintiffs and the Government of Russia should give
answers on the follow-up questions set by the court.
Before the claim was submitted to Strasburg, the claim was
examined by Russian courts. In 2004 the Supreme Court of Russia
rejected the claim.
A 300 pages thick file of the claim is also supplied with
videos demonstrating lack of equal access of the parties participating
in the elections to mass media. Thus, 61.5 per cent of information
on the United Russia party broadcast by television channels
represented unlawful propaganda; whereas 75 per cent of such
information was broadcast by state television channels.
In addition, the complaint indicates that governors, federal
ministers and other celebrities that were on United Russia’s
lists (i.e., 37 candidates or one third of United Russia’s
federal election list) turned down their mandates after United
Russia’s victory, thus “misleading the electorate voting for
these figures”.
The plaintiffs also indicated that protocols of electoral
commissions had failed to comply with the law, which constituted
additional ground for recognizing the election void.
See also:
State
Duma Elections 2003
Regional
Elections, 2010
Human
Rights
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