Press Release, 23.09.2024

Photo: Yevgeny Vasiliyev / Photo by the Pskov Yabloko

Yevgeny Vasiliyev, a Yabloko candidate for the post of head of the Gdovsky district of the Pskov region, filed a lawsuit challenging the voting results at 17 polling stations out of 20 and demanded that video recordings be provided to him.

The applicant believes that the violations of the voting procedure and the establishment of the voting results committed during the elections for the head of the Gdovsky district do not allow the results of the expression of the will of the voters to be reliably determined.

As a result of the violations committed during the voting and the establishment of the voting results, the number of votes cast for candidate Ivan Meshkov was significantly overstated and the number of votes cast for candidate Yevgeny Vasiliyev was significantly understated.

The lawsuit states that the following violations were committed during the voting in the elections for the head of the Gdovsky District by the Gdovsky District Electoral Commission: substitution of ballots, voting outside the polling station in the absence of valid reasons for the purpose of substituting ballots, violations of the vote counting procedure for the purpose of concealing the substitution of ballots.

The plaintiff’s representative, lawyer Vitaly Isakov, commented on the claims:

“Elections can be considered legal if participants in electoral legal relations are provided with the opportunity to verify that all procedures are carried out in strict accordance with the law. In fair elections, CCTV cameras are not turned off, there is no access to the place where ballots are stored at night, applications for home voting are justified by valid reasons, and members of precinct electoral commissions do not invent ways to count ballots that are not provided for by federal law. The elections for the head of the Gdovsky District do not meet this principle.

Observers from Yabloko were not allowed into the polling stations, the candidate was not allowed to be present during the vote counting. Three-day voting and remote electronic voting create opportunities for abuse, ballot substitution, and do not allow one to verify the absence of ballot stuffing and substitution. There are other signs that cast doubt on the reliability of the results. For example, the vote counting at some polling stations in a record short time and the abnormal increase in turnout, which, by an amazing coincidence, coincided with the increase in support for the candidate from the ruling party.

We filed a lawsuit with the Gdov District Court to challenge the voting results in those polling stations where electoral anomalies were evident. We are also petitioning to obtain video recordings from polling stations for all days of voting. The Territorial Electoral Commission of the Gdovsky District adopted a resolution a month and a half before the elections, according to which candidates can obtain video recordings from polling stations only through the court or the public prosecutor’s office, which is why we went to court. Earlier, the Pskov Region Electoral Commission refused to provide video recordings to Yabloko candidate Yevgeny Vasiliyev, since it did not consider itself a commission organising the elections.

Procedural legislation establishes the obligation of electoral commissions to prove the legality of their actions. The Territorial Electoral Commission of the Gdovsky District can provide them to the court if it has nothing to hide. The trial is scheduled for 7 October.”

Pskov Yabloko does not recognise the official results of the elections for the head of the Gdovsky District.