Press Release, 17.03.2024

Photo: Yelena Mayatnikova / Photo by the Pskov regional branch of the party

Yelena Mayatnikova, a member of the Pskov Regional Electoral Commission from Yabloko, announced at the final meeting of the Electoral Commission of the Pskov Region, that extra ballots were printed and, thus, it was impossible to reliably determine the results of the expression of the will of citizens in the region.

Mayatnikova believes that the number of voters 499,855 indicated in the summary table of election results for the Pskov region is unreliable. It does not correspond to the actual number of citizens who have the right to vote and who are registered as residents of the Pskov region.

Thus, the population of the Pskov region as of 1 January, 2023 was 587,786 people, of which 107,952 were under the age of 18 years and have to right to vote yet. Thus, the number of people who have reached voting age is 479,834 instead of the 499,855 indicated in the protocol.

Yelena Mayatnikova believes that the unreliable number of voters could have been intentionally indicated in order to distort the number of citizens who came to the elections and the voting results.

In addition, the resolution of the Regional Electoral Commission established the number of ballot papers for voting in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation for voters in the Pskov region as 506,100 (including for polling stations equipped with touchscreen voting machines), which significantly exceeds the number of voters. Also, the number of ballots received by electoral commissions, according to the protocol of the commission, ultimately amounted to 533,768. Thus, an excess number of ballots were produced and transferred to the electoral commissions. At the same time, 72,037 voters in the Pskov region voted electronically, that is, they did not need paper ballots.

Yelena Mayatnikova notes that the territorial electoral commissions in five municipalities did not include voting members nominated by the Pskov regional branch of the Yabloko party, which has parliamentary status in the Pskov region and, thus, can have its members in electoral commissions, into the precinct election commissions. Mayatnikova refers to the resolutions of the regional electoral commission, which rejected the complaints by the Pskov Yabloko on the actions of territorial electoral commissions.

Thus, according to Mayatnikova, the elections were held by precinct electoral commissions with illegal composition of members in the city of Pskov, and Dnovsky, Opochetsky, Pustoshkinsky and Strugokrasnensky districts. This circumstance also implies the lack of transparency in the work of electoral commissions in the Pskov region, including the handling of over-produced ballots.

Yelena Mayatnikova demanded that the issue of conducting a recount of votes in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation in the territory of these five municipalities be put on the agenda of the meeting. However, this issue was not put to a vote by a majority vote of the commission members.

In view of all of the above reasons, Yelena Mayatnikova submitted her dissenting opinion that the numerical data in the protocol on the voting results did not correspond to the actual election results and did not allow to reliably determine the results of the expression of the will of citizens.