A parliamentary commission to monitor compliance with the law during the

presidential elections in Udmurtia (to be held on October 15, 2000) has been created on the proposal of the deputy from the Yabloko faction Sergei Mitrokhin. This decision was adopted on October 11 at a meeting of the State Duma Commission for the Study of the Practices of the Electoral Legislation of the RF in the Preparation and Holding of Elections and Referenda. All the factions of the State Duma were grant the opportunity to include representatives in the Commission.

The initiator of the Commission Mitrokhin said that he had received information on multiple violations of the election law made by the Chairman of the State Council of Udmurtia Alexander Volkov, who is also one of the candidates in the presidential elections in the republic.

Mitrokhin stated that Alexandr Volkov had used his post to exert pressure on the electorate, mass media, electoral commissions and other presidential candidates.

Mitrokhin said that he doubted the lawfulness of appointing Dmitri Talantov, who is the personal solicitor of Volkov, as head of the republican election commission. Mitrokhin referred here to the data of the Udmurtia press: according to these data, this appointment was made by forging documents.

Mitrokhin stressed: “The deterioration in the situation with the selection campaign continues. Central newspapers, containing critical materials on the republic’s leadership are being confiscated (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Trud”, etc.). The danger of falsification of the elections is high.”