[main page][map of the server][news of the server][forums][guestbook][press-service][hot issues]

YABLOKO’s Olga Vlasova made a report in the Federation Council on violations in the recent regional elections

Press Release

October 22, 2012

Olga Vlasova, member of YABLOKO Bureau, made report in the Federation Council on mass-scale violations in the recent regional and municipal election campaign.

The report was made within the framework of a round table discussion on "The Results of the Elections in the Russian Federation as the Prospect for Improving the Electoral Law" which took place on October 18. The meeting was attended by members of the State Duma, the Federation Council, representatives of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, representatives of the Russian Central Electoral Commission and electoral commissions of the regions.

In her speech Olga Vlasova focused on the following three main points:

1. Mass-scale violations in all the Russian regions where elections were held. YABLOKO observers documented widespread ballot stuffing, "carousel" votings, illegal refusals to allow observers to the polling stations and use of administrative resources. On voting day, regional electoral commissions turned into battle fields for upholding the rights of observers to be at the polling stations. In one of the polling stations in Tula YABLOKO observer was broken a finger.

Massive fraud was arranged with the help of ballot boxes for mobile voting. Electoral commission members visited blocks of flats with mobile ballot boxes (without any requests from the voters) under a pretext of improving the turnout. In Penza, electoral commissions gave different numbers of ballots for single-member candidates and party lists for home-based voting; whereas the number of ballots given for party lists was several times higher.

"The statement of the Central Electoral Commission on receiving 320 complaints is not true, because only one of YABLOKO’s applications 96 points, one of which, for example, reports of unlawful refusal to let observers to the polling stations in over 50 per cent of electoral commissions in Tatarstan. Thus, if all the 320 applications are as meaningful as this one, the number of complaints and violations should be recognized off-scale," said Vlasova.

2. Despite the cancellation of collection of signatures for registration of a candidate, a new kind of barrier for registration of candidates emerged: delays in issuing a certificate for opening of a bank account that should be used in the election campaign. YABLOKO registered such violations in Rubtsovsk (the Altai Territory), Belgorod and Pervouralsk (the Sverdlovsk region). In Belgorod YABLOKO candidate was not registered, and in Rubtsovsk and Pervouralsk YABLOKO candidates had to begin their campaigns much later due to lengthy court trials.

3. Electoral codes in some regions do not comply with the federal law on guarantees of electoral rights. Due to such arbitrariness Olga Kitova, YABLOKO’s candidate in Belgorod, was not admitted to the election campaign.

Representatives of other parties also raised the issue of violations at the roundtable.

"It is clear that to date, fraud has become more brazen and open along with the so-called liberalisation of the electoral,” said representative of one of the parliamentary parties supporting Kremlin. He also added that members of electoral commissions from his party were nominated in Anapa even without any consultations with this party.

“Half of the municipal deputies in Moscow from party were not nominated by this Party Conference either, however, they are staff members of Moscow District Councils. All the protocols were forged, however, it was impossible to prove it to anyone in the court ", said Olga Vlasova.

Unfortunately, this report, as well as the most informative reports from other participants were left without coverage at the Federation Council official website.


See also:

YABLOKO in the regional and municipal elections on October 14, 2012. Press Release, October 12, 2012.

Regional and Local Elections 2012

 

 

Press Release

October 22, 2012

Rambler's Top100