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
|
