Mayoral elections
in Anapa: YABLOKO leader demands from head of the Central Electoral
Commission to cancel the results of the elections
Press Release
March 25,
2013
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demanded from Vladimir
Churov, head of the Central Election Commission, to cancel
the results of the mayoral elections in Anapa, the Krasnodar
Territory, held on Sunday. The number of cases of stuffing
of fraudulent ballots does not allow a genuine expression
of voters will to be determined. Information about all the
facts of fraud was also sent to the Central Electoral Commission.
Election observers at the Anapa mayoral elections registered
ballot stuffing in at least ten in 68 polling stations and
different violations (including ousting of observers) at virtually
all the polling stations. In most cases, counterfeiters succeeded
in stuffing a package of ballots into the ballot box, ballot
boxes were not sealed and those engaged in fraud were released
at once.
Sergei Mitrokhin was on a visit in Anapa so that to support
on the verge of the voting day Alexei Yegorov, YABLOKOs candidate
on the post of Anapa Mayor. Earlier Mitrokhin had already
applied to the Central Electoral Commission with a request
to ensure the lawfulness of the voting procedure, as electoral
commission members with a casting vote had been appointed
with great violations on the basis of fraudulent protocols.
Also Mitrokhin prolonged his visit to Anapa and registered
as YABLOKO candidates authorized representative so that to
be able to observe the voting.
Gross violations began already on Friday, when road police
detained a coach that had to transport YABLOKO and independent
observers from Taganrog to Anapa. Policemen stopped the coach
and claiming without any examination of the vehicle that its
brakes must be out of order and prohibited further movement
of the coach. The second coach rented by observers was not
allowed to go either. The police simply took off its number
plate. Despite this the observers managed to get to Anapa.
However, on the voting day about 20 cars with about a hundred
of YABLOKOs observers could not get to the polling stations
by their opening time 8 a.m., due to blocking of the road
by the police and a staged car accident on the road Sukko-Anapa.
First the police completely closed the road from the Sukko
town (where the observers who came to the elections from Krasnodar
and Taganrog stayed in a hotel) at 5 a.m. and one of the policemen
told the observers that there had been an order not to let
anyone go to Anapa by midday.
The road was opened only at 7:40 a.m., but in 2 kilometers
the column of obeservers cars was stopped again as a large
KAMAZ lorry with metal tubes was completely blocking the road,
also the tubes fell out of the lorry and were lying on the
road crating an additional obstruction for traffic. According
to the driver, the accident took place at 6 a.m., however,
the police gave a different time of the accident 7 a.m.
The authorities did not undertake any attempts to clear the
road, did not let drivers of other lorries to help to get
the damaged lorry of the road, so the observers had to clear
the road off the piles of metal tubes on their own.
Also inspecting the site of the accident the observers
reported that the lorry was accurately parked off blocking
the road, there was no any braking path or damages of the
lorry that would be typical of a real accident. It was also
strange to see the police cars at both the sides of the accident
site, as the Sukko police station did not have a single police
car in its disposal and there was only one passage to Sukko
from the main road. The only explanation was that they had
arrived there before the staged accident. Looked like the
road had been blocked by the police for several kilometers
from both sides so that to stage the accident and not to
let any witnesses to see it.
A lorry accurately parked off the road
All this was done so that our observers could not get to
the polling station to their opening and so that to do unhampered
stuffing of ballots in favour of Sergei Sergeyev, United Russia
candidate and ex police head whom Governor Tkachyov wanted
to see as Anapa Mayor, said Sergei Mitrokhin who also visited
the accident site.
Voting demonstrated different violations from stuffing
of ballots to ousting of observers from polling stations,
ban on filming, as well as threats and physical violence against
observers.
See the video of violence against a female observer Alexandra
Gorkusha.
Gorkusha was given a protocol of voting by the commission,
however, soon the commission demanded to return the protocol
and on getting a refusal commission members began beating
Gorkusha and broke her finger and two other YABLOKOs observes
Yaroslav Nikolsky and Vladimir Ponomaryov. The observers were
beaten with legs and chairs, the video camera was also broken,
their telephones were snatched after which they were all locked
in a room.
An attack was undertaken against Sergei Mitrokhin. An unidentified
person sprayed some green liquid in the face of YABLOKOs
leader at one of the polling stations. The liquid got onto
his neck and arms. An emergency doctor wiped the paint from
the skin, but advised Sergei Mitrokhin to go to hospital for
further observation, since "anything could have been
mixed into the liquid".
The attack against Mitrokhin took place immediately after
a collision of YABLOKOs observers with members of the local
organized crime group "Russians" who came to rescue
the person who had stuffed balloted at polling station No
0225.
Two men blocked the observers and YABLOKO leader at the polling
station and did not allow them to control whether the detainee
had been brought to the police station.
The observers believed that the police had let him go. Sergei
Mitrokhin, demanded that police check the documents of one
of the unknown. Instead, the police lieutenant simulated an
unsuccessful chase. After that Sergei Mitrokhin was attacked.
Two unidentified persons from the "Russians"
oranized crime group
