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 Mayoral elections in Anapa: YABLOKO leader demands from head of the Central Electoral Commission to cancel the results of the elections

Press Release

March 25, 2013

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demanded from Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Election Commission, to cancel the results of the mayoral elections in Anapa, the Krasnodar Territory, held on Sunday. The number of cases of stuffing of fraudulent ballots does not allow a genuine expression of voters will to be determined. Information about all the facts of fraud was also sent to the Central Electoral Commission.

Election observers at the Anapa mayoral elections registered ballot stuffing in at least ten in 68 polling stations and different violations (including ousting of observers) at virtually all the polling stations. In most cases, counterfeiters succeeded in stuffing a package of ballots into the ballot box, ballot boxes were not sealed and those engaged in fraud were released at once.

Sergei Mitrokhin was on a visit in Anapa so that to support on the verge of the voting day Alexei Yegorov, YABLOKOs candidate on the post of Anapa Mayor. Earlier Mitrokhin had already applied to the Central Electoral Commission with a request to ensure the lawfulness of the voting procedure, as electoral commission members with a casting vote had been appointed with great violations on the basis of fraudulent protocols. Also Mitrokhin prolonged his visit to Anapa and registered as YABLOKO candidates authorized representative so that to be able to observe the voting.

Gross violations began already on Friday, when road police detained a coach that had to transport YABLOKO and independent observers from Taganrog to Anapa. Policemen stopped the coach and claiming without any examination of the vehicle that its brakes must be out of order and prohibited further movement of the coach. The second coach rented by observers was not allowed to go either. The police simply took off its number plate. Despite this the observers managed to get to Anapa.

However, on the voting day about 20 cars with about a hundred of YABLOKOs observers could not get to the polling stations by their opening time 8 a.m., due to blocking of the road by the police and a staged car accident on the road Sukko-Anapa. First the police completely closed the road from the Sukko town (where the observers who came to the elections from Krasnodar and Taganrog stayed in a hotel) at 5 a.m. and one of the policemen told the observers that there had been an order not to let anyone go to Anapa by midday.

The road was opened only at 7:40 a.m., but in 2 kilometers the column of obeservers cars was stopped again as a large KAMAZ lorry with metal tubes was completely blocking the road, also the tubes fell out of the lorry and were lying on the road crating an additional obstruction for traffic. According to the driver, the accident took place at 6 a.m., however, the police gave a different time of the accident 7 a.m. The authorities did not undertake any attempts to clear the road, did not let drivers of other lorries to help to get the damaged lorry of the road, so the observers had to clear the road off the piles of metal tubes on their own.

Also inspecting the site of the accident the observers reported that the lorry was accurately parked off blocking the road, there was no any braking path or damages of the lorry that would be typical of a real accident. It was also strange to see the police cars at both the sides of the accident site, as the Sukko police station did not have a single police car in its disposal and there was only one passage to Sukko from the main road. The only explanation was that they had arrived there before the staged accident. Looked like the road had been blocked by the police for several kilometers from both sides so that to stage the accident and not to let any witnesses to see it.

A lorry accurately parked off the road

All this was done so that our observers could not get to the polling station to their opening and so that to do unhampered stuffing of ballots in favour of Sergei Sergeyev, United Russia candidate and ex police head whom Governor Tkachyov wanted to see as Anapa Mayor, said Sergei Mitrokhin who also visited the accident site.

Voting demonstrated different violations from stuffing of ballots to ousting of observers from polling stations, ban on filming, as well as threats and physical violence against observers.

See the video of violence against a female observer Alexandra Gorkusha.

 

Gorkusha was given a protocol of voting by the commission, however, soon the commission demanded to return the protocol and on getting a refusal commission members began beating Gorkusha and broke her finger and two other YABLOKOs observes Yaroslav Nikolsky and Vladimir Ponomaryov. The observers were beaten with legs and chairs, the video camera was also broken, their telephones were snatched after which they were all locked in a room.

An attack was undertaken against Sergei Mitrokhin. An unidentified person sprayed some green liquid in the face of YABLOKOs leader at one of the polling stations. The liquid got onto his neck and arms. An emergency doctor wiped the paint from the skin, but advised Sergei Mitrokhin to go to hospital for further observation, since "anything could have been mixed into the liquid".



The attack against Mitrokhin took place immediately after a collision of YABLOKOs observers with members of the local organized crime group "Russians" who came to rescue the person who had stuffed balloted at polling station No 0225.

Two men blocked the observers and YABLOKO leader at the polling station and did not allow them to control whether the detainee had been brought to the police station.

The observers believed that the police had let him go. Sergei Mitrokhin, demanded that police check the documents of one of the unknown. Instead, the police lieutenant simulated an unsuccessful chase. After that Sergei Mitrokhin was attacked.

Two unidentified persons from the "Russians" oranized crime group

See also:

Regional and Municipal Elections

Human Rights

 

 

 

 

Press Release

March 25, 2013

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