Press Release, 6.08.2024

The Tula Region Electoral Commission is going to refuse registration of the Yabloko list of candidates for the elections to the Tula City Duma. The working group of the electoral commission, based on the results of checking 2,316 signatures in support of the nomination of the list, considers 256 signatures invalid, i.e. more than 11% which allows it to reject the list. Tula Yabloko insists that it provided the commission a sufficient number of valid and reliable signatures, and the decision to remove Yabloko from the elections is political in nature. The evidence that the commission adjusted the percentage of defects to the desired result is in the photographs above.

Tula Yabloko submitted signatures for its nomination on 29 July. The working group of the electoral commission checked the signatures on 3-4 August. The check was not selective: all signature sheets were first checked against the information about voters through the State Automated System Elections. Then the signatures were checked by graphologists of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then the signatures were manually checked by specialists of the electoral commission. As a result of the check, 256 signatures were recognised as invalid or unreliable. Of these, 175 signatures allegedly did not correspond to the information about the voters.

The Yabloko team in Tula conducted its own analysis of the results of the check and the signature sheets and came to the conclusion that the result was specially adjusted to the percentage on “non-passing”: the detected “defective signatures” of 11.05% will not allow the Yabloko list to be registered, as the acceptable percentage of defective signatures is 10%. Meanwhile, at least 86 signatures were recognised as invalid on far-fetched grounds: fictitious information was sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for verification. In addition, like in the signature sheets of the candidate for the Moscow City Duma Maxim Kruglov, the information presented in the sheets corresponds to the passport data of the citizens, and there are errors in the databases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If Yabloko can prove that at least 74 signatures are valid, then the total number of signatures will suffice to register the list of candidates.

So far, the list of candidates from Yabloko for the Tula City Duma has not been registered. The date of the meeting of the electoral commission, at which the decision on registration will be made, is yet unknown. Yabloko intends to appeal the actions of the employees of the electoral commission of the Tula region. According to the Chairman of the regional branch of the party Vladimir Dorokhov, the commission is fulfilling a political order from the authorities of the Tula region.

“Obtaining mandates in the Tula City Duma is not an end in itself for us. It is important for us to be political representatives of thousands of citizens who share the slogan “For Peace and Freedom”. These people have the right to representation, and we are fighting to ensure that their right is realised.

If the goal were to satisfy one’s vanity with a deputy’s mandate, then the path to hitting this goal is well-known: one must turn into an obedient brown poodle with a red bow and nod approvingly to any decisions of the authorities. There are plenty of examples of this, suffice it to look at the composition of most legislative assemblies – from the State Duma to some village councils. We deliberately chose a different path that corresponds to our convictions, and time will prove that we were right. But now the situation is such that there are virtually no methods left against the lawlessness of the authorities and their puppet electoral commissions. But we will do everything possible to bring them to light,” Vladimir Dorokhov said.