Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Kuban’s YABLOKO had tires of his car ripped on the eve of elections
Press Release, September 9, 2013
Leonid Zaprudin, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Kuban’s YABLOKO, had tires of his car ripped on the eve of elections when he arrived to Tuapse along with a group of journalists to cover the voting in the city. The incident took place on the night before the election day September 8 when unindentified people slashed tires of his car with a knife.
Zaprudin filed a complaint with the police after which the police conducted an investigation.
Members of the Kuban (Krasnodar region) branch of YABLOKO he party say this was done in order to deprive journalists of the paper of any ability to move freely between polling stations in Tuapse so that to observe the voting.
In spite of all the obstacles the journalists together with observers detected serious violations of the electoral law during voting: stuffing of ballots, violations of the order of counting of the votes, obstructions for photo and video recording, removal of journalists from polling stations, , refusals to accept complaints, vote by nonresident citizens, “carousel” votings and presence of personnel from the city administration as members of electoral commissions .
In addition, election observers were not allowed to sit on chairs at most of the polling stations, they were forced to stand for about 20 hours.
Posted: September 12th, 2013 under Regional and Local Elections.