We demand a political reform and the cancellation of the municipal filter
Statement by Yabloko Bureau, 11.10.2018

Election campaigns of different levels, including gubernatorial elections in 25 regions of Russia, took place in September 2018. As a result, 19 new governors were elected with the support of United Russia, 2 with the support of LDPR, 1 – The Communist Party, 1 – Just Russia. Runoff elections in two regions will be held later.

This election campaign can be characterised by fraud on a large-scale, ballot box stuffing which was witnessed by election observers, meddling in the state’s automated vote-counting system and unprecedented violation of law on behalf of the Central Electoral Commission that annulled the voting results in Primorski Krai without having any grounds for it.

We stated it many times that gubernatorial elections turned into a procedure of appointing candidates approved by the Kremlin. Municipal filters and other artificial barriers for strong and independent candidates for invented for this aim. The authorities have been fighting completion in the elections for many years. As a result, United Russia fails to win even in the artificial environment. Background artists who did not participate in the campaign and did their best to lose won in many regions.

We should have no illusions about the victory of the Communist Party/LDPR. The so called “parliamentary parties” have proved it many times that they are a united conglomerate and represent a unified “ruling party”. They carry out a single authoritarian policy sharing Putin’s opinion on the major issues.

Yabloko Bureau states: elections in Russia still lack competition, they are not fair and subjected to fraud. We demand a political reform that should return meaning to the elections and the cancellation of the municipal filter.

Emilia Slabunova
Yabloko Chair