Press Release, 26.04.2024

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Oktyabrsky District Court held the first hearing on Yabloko’s claim on non-admission of Yabloko representatives from joining the city’s electoral commissions. The interests of the party were represented by lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky.

The judge immediately rejected the party’s request to involve Yabloko’s appointed members of electoral commissions as interested parties, although in the event of a positive decision on the claim, their interests would be directly affected.

“The fact that the judge refuses to involve people whose interests may be affected if a positive decision is made may indicate that the court’s position has been formulated in advance. Thus, we are not confident in impartiality and have motioned to recuse the judge,” lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky explains the party’s position.

The judge, however, rejected the motion for recusal. In addition to the debate about whether it was legal to refuse Yabloko representatives to participate in the activities of electoral commissions provided for by the law, the procedure established by territorial electoral commissions for appointing members of precinct election commissions is also being discussed. Additional documents have been requested for this discussion. The trial will continue on 13 June, as the judge goes on vacation.

It should be noted that the Yabloko party nominated more than a thousand of its representatives to precinct electoral commissions, which were supposed to control both the past presidential elections in the Russian Federation and the upcoming gubernatorial elections, elections to municipal councils and the Legislative Assembly (in 2026). For subjective reasons, almost 400 people were not allowed to work in electoral commissions. The refusals were passed with the help of reduction in the commission’s staff.

Yabloko, as a party represented in the regional parliament of St.Petersburg, is guaranteed representation in the electoral commission by law. However, not a single person was allowed into the precinct electoral commissions in the Central District of St.Petersburg, where the party traditionally has a high rating. Territorial electoral commissions, which are responsible for the formation of precinct electoral commissions, decided to reduce the number of commissions and select candidates by ranked voting.

The party states in the lawsuit: “Decisions related to the establishment of ranked voting and the refusal to appoint candidates proposed by the parliamentary party are not based on the law” – they contradict Federal Law No 67 “On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation”.

The right of the party was violated, but when society and the media began asking questions, the head of the city electoral commission, Maxim Meiksin, did not even try to refer to violations in the documents. He replied that the commission “did not allow candidates who made “statements against the state” on social media and participated in rallies”.

Yabloko has the highest percentage of refusals in appointment of party candidates as electoral commissions members – 38%. For comparison, A Just Russia has 11.6%, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – 0.7%, New People – 0.2%, and the LDPR and United Russia have one refusal each – 0.1%.

The City Electoral Commission rejected Yabloko’s complaints, and the Central Electoral Commission did not even consider them. All this despite the fact that such decisions of territorial electoral commissions contradict the methodological recommendations of the Central Electoral Commission. The party went to court, where it will continue to insist: the decisions of the territorial electoral commissions and the City Electoral Commission ignore a number of provisions of the law, demonstrating unconstitutional discrimination against citizens proposed by the party to the precinct electoral commissions on the basis of beliefs and membership in public associations.