Press Release, 19.07.2021

Photo by Dmitry Dukhanin/ Kommersant

The Yabloko party filed an administrative lawsuit with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the recognition of the Central Electoral Commission’s decision on cancelling public broadcasts from polling stations during elections of the State Duma deputies inappropriate to the law. On 14 July, the Central Electoral Commission decided to abandon public broadcasts from polling stations on voting days which, according to Yabloko, would hamper observation in the elections.

The election observation institute is designed to ensure citizens’ confidence in the election results and the institutions of representative democracy resulting from elections, the lawsuit runs.

Video broadcasting from polling stations is an additional mechanism that ensures the principle of transparency in the activities of electoral commissions. The video broadcast allows citizens to independently observe the voting procedure and the work of electoral commissions.

The decision adopted by the Central Electoral Commission “diminishes and restricts the electoral rights of citizens” in contrast to the provisions of the law “On Basic Guarantees”. This violates Article 55 of the Constitution, which prohibits the diminution of human and civil rights and freedoms. This article permits the limitation of rights exclusively by a federal law, and not by a subordinate act.

The Central Electoral Commission exceeded its powers up to the authority of the federal legislator, creating the basis for violations of the electoral rights of citizens in terms of control over the electoral process, Yabloko emphasizes in its lawsuit.

“If a decision is made to limit the circle of people who can access online broadcasting, then something bad is being prepared at the polling stations. We will now confront this in court. And citizens will be able to resist this at polling stations if they come there on 19 September as voters, or if they will carry out control at the polling stations as observers during all three voting days. They need to learn how to do it, and we are preparing observers now,” Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said.