 YABLOKO
and the Union of Right-Wing Forces did clear the 5 per cent barrier required
for representation in the State Duma, the Communist Party said after the
Central Election Commission released the official results of Sunday's vote.
The Communist Party's observers, who monitored the vote and carried out
a parallel count of votes, accused the authorities of rigging the vote
in favour of pro-Kremlin United Russia.
According to the results of the parallel count of votes carried out
by the Communist Party observers, approximately 1.5 per cent was stolen
from both YABLOKO and the Union of Right-Wing Forces. The Motherland bloc
also lost around 1 per cent during the relay of the results from the voting
to Moscow, although this loss wasn't as critical for Sergei Glazyev and
Dmitry Rogozin as it was for the liberals.
These are the conclusions of the Communist Party, first announced on
Tuesday this week. On Wednesday Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov
held a news conference in Moscow where he divulged the results of the
parallel vote count and said his party would seek a recount of the votes
in the parliamentary elections.
In particular, Zyuganov spoke of additions, which he said were made
when the results of the parliamentary election were counted. Ballot papers
filled in favour of the pro-Kremlin United Russia were unlawfully stuffed
in ballot boxes at polling stations throughout the country.
According to Zyuganov, 15 per cent of the official protocols of the
electoral commissions were analysed, which he says makes it possible to
say that "at least 3.5 million ballot papers" were unlawfully
added to papers actually cast by voters.
"The turnout was not 56 per cent, as the Central Electoral Commission
says, but 52.58 per cent," Zyuganov said, adding that the electoral
authorities had intentionally added at least 3.5 million ballot papers
to inflate United Russia's final tally.
The Communist leader went on to say that 16,633,299 voting papers from
almost 11,000 polling stations had been analysed. According to the party's
calculation, in actual fact United Russia had obtained 33.1 per cent (instead
of 37.1 per cent, under the official results); the Communist Party 12.73
per cent (instead of 12.7 per cent); Liberal Democratic Party 11.46 per
cent (instead of 11.6 per cent); Motherland 10.69 per cent (instead of
9.1 per cent); YABLOKO - 5.98 per cent (instead of 4.3 per cent); Union
of Right-Wing Forces - 5.12 per cent (instead of 4.0 per cent) and 5.17
per cent (not 4.7 per cent) of ballots were cast against all parties.
Thus, Zyuganov concluded, "according to our data, both YABLOKO
and the Union of Right-Wing Forces passed the five-per-cent barrier required
for representation in the State Duma". "We cannot recognize
the results of a vote, which has been a 100-per-cent swindle. We are demanding
a manual recount of the voting papers," Zyuganov said.
At the same time, the party leader made it clear that the Communists
did not intend to give up their seats. "We will have a strong and
literate faction. We will regroup our forces and focus on our work in
the regions," Zyuganov said.
The Communist Party is now the only opposition force in the State Duma,
he continued. "The team of Putin and Zhirinovsky is offering us a
monarchy and a police state," Zyuganov said.
The Kremlin has already shared out all the leading posts in the State
Duma, Zyuganov said. The Communist leader claimed that it had been decided
a long time ago that the United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov would become
the Duma chairman.
Another United Russia activist, Lyubov Sliska will keep the post of
first deputy speaker and Zhirinovsky will, in all probability, retain
the post of deputy speaker.
Commenting on the communists' allegations earlier this week, CEC head
Alexander Veshnyakov said: "We have no information on fraud that
would call into question the elections' results," Alexander Veshnyakov
told reporters. Veshnyakov ruled out the possibility that the automatic
ballot counting system that adds up reports by local elections commissions
could have been manipulated.
United Russia's Oleg Morozov said that if the Communist Party really
does have sufficient proof that the vote was rigged, it should, in accordance
with the established procedure, pass this evidence over for judicial examination,
and only then draw such conclusions.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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