Alexander Goncharenko’s blog post, 12.01.2021

Photo by Balakate /Depositphotos.com

Towards the end of the outgoing 2020 (on 28 December), a meeting of the Electoral Commission of the Altai Territory was held in a covert way, the meeting completed the formation of territorial electoral commissions (TECs) in the Altai Territory. A total of 74 TECs have been formed in the region, that will have to “decide” the fate of elections in the region within five years.

This year, the formation of TECs took place in three stages. At the third stage, ten TECs were formed, including six in Barnaul, two TECs in Biysk and one commission each in Slavgorod and in Novoaltaisk. At the third stage, 102 members of territorial electoral commissions were appointed.

The new TECs included 40 candidates from four parliamentary parties, 25 candidates were nominated by work collectives, eight people were nominated by assemblies of citizens at their place of residence, 21 candidates were recommended by the previous compositions of municipal and territorial electoral commissions, four people were nominated by the representative bodies of municipalities, three by public organisations and only one candidate was included from non-parliamentary parties. The only member of the TEC from non-parliamentary parties was Vadim Borodayev, nominated by the Yabloko party.

Regional and municipal authorities (28 people) and educational institutions (20 people) became the main source of personnel for TECs of the third stage.

Statistics is a stubborn thing and it shows that the Electoral Commission of the Altai Territory has been consistently ousting the independent opposition, for example, our party, from electoral commissions for the past ten years. Thus, 11 representatives of the Yabloko party were included in the territorial (municipal) electoral commissions in 2011, only five in 2015, and only one in 2020. The percentage of Yabloko candidates with a decisive vote in TECs was 36.7% in 2011, 26.3% in 2015, and only 12.5% in 2020.

I should note that the level of professionalism of the candidates from Yabloko has not deteriorated over the years. All candidates had experience of working in electoral commissions, and some had legal background. For example, Valery Polyansky has been a permanent member of the Shelabolikhinsky District Electoral Commission since 2002, and for the last ten years he has been Deputy Chairman of the Commission, but as soon as he voted “incorrectly” several times, he was not included in the new composition of the Commission. It is not clear what the members of the Electoral Commission of the Altai Territory were guided by when they did not include Yevgeny Cherezov, nominated as candidate for the post of electoral commission member by Yabloko and a member of the previous composition of this commission, in the Talmensky regional Territorial Electoral Commission. I have nothing against  teachers and workers of the “Chinese market” (AO “Trade and Production Complex of the Altai Territory”), or the activity of citizens who, during the pandemic, held meetings and nominated their candidates for TECs, but the electoral process is the lot of political parties, and there are 28 of them in the region (regional branches of political parties).

It is clear that ousting the independent opposition from TECs takes place on the eve of the State Duma elections and elections to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly. The Regional Council of Yabloko adopted the statement “On the Democratic Coalition in the Altai Territory” and called on all democratic forces, active citizens to form a coalition “Yabloko – United Democrats of the Altai Territory” on the basis of the Yabloko party, since it is the only non-parliamentary party exempted from collecting signatures [in nomination of its candidates]. We hope to form a democratic faction in the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly in 2021”.

Alexander Goncharenko is

member of the Federal Bureau of the party, Chairman of the Altai regional regional branch of the party. Human rights defender. Candidate of Medical Sciences