Press Release, 24.09.2019

Supposedly amendments were made to the charter of the Municipal Council of the Liteiny District in St.Petersburg so that to prevent of a deputy from Yabloko be elected as head of the council. According to the new charter, now it is possible to elect head of the municipal council with by two-thirds of the votes, although earlier he/she could be elected by a simple majority. Yabloko received 11 of the 20 mandates in the 8 September elections in this municipality, so had good chances that head of the council would be elected from Yabloko deputies.

The decision to complicate the procedure was allegedly made on 4 September, but it was most likely issued retroactively (documents were registered with the Ministry of Justice only on 20 September).

Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, notes that, according to official information, the changes were made after the public hearings that took place on 15 July, but he wonders if any of the residents of the district attended these hearings.

According to Boris Vishnevsky, these changes could have been made already after the election, when Yabloko received more than half of the mandates, as in case it is not possible to elect a new head of the municipal district, the previous head Pavel Dainyak will continue to perform his duties.

“Personally, I believe that there were no hearings, and the “changes to the Charter” were urgently faked after the elections, when it became clear that Yabloko had a majority (this was determined on 12 September). The United Russia party had no reason to make these changes before – in July-August they could not be sure that they would receive two-thirds of the mandates. This means that we are faced with a banal scam,” Vishnevsky said.

“The essence of the matter is that until a new head of the municipal district is elected, the former head fulfills his duties. Even if the United Russia party has a minority on the board. I think that is what the swindlers are counting on.

We will try to expose this fraud. Residents of the district voted for a change of authoritiy. Their will must be fulfilled,” Boris Vishnevsky emphasised.

It should be noted that, according to the results of the elections of September 8, the Yabloko party received representation in 31 municipal districts of St. Petersburg, 81 candidates nominated or supported by Yabloko got mandates of municipal deputies.

In two districts – Liteyny and Vladimirsky – Yabloko has a majority: 11 mandates out of 20 and 12 mandates out of 20, respectively. The party formed large fractions in the Smolninskiy municipal district (seven deputies) and Malaya Okhta (eight deputies).

In addition, Yabloko won the election in Murino, a large settlement in the Leningrad region on the border with St. Petersburg. There Yabloko has 13 out of 20 mandates.

However, the results of the election were not entered into the GAS Vybory system (a federal data base on all elections in Russia) in a significant part of the municipal districts where the Yabloko won for almost two days. In a number of municipalities in St. Petersburg, election results were rigged, and mandates were stolen.