Press Release, 16.06.2021

Video by the Yabloko Press Service

On 16 June, the Central Electoral Commission held a meeting on the appeals from the Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov and the Ombudsman in St. Petersburg Alexander Shishlov sent to the head of the Central Electoral Commission Ella Pamfilova, with a proposal not to introduce a three-day voting in the 2021 elections.

Rybakov noted that the trust of citizens in the elections should be a key interest of the state, but at the moment such trust is low.

“The simpler and clearer the voting procedure is for citizens, the more confidence will be there in the elections,” the Yabloko leader said.

Yabloko Chairman did not accept the arguments of Ella Pamfilova who referred to protection measures against COVID-19. According to Rybakov, there are considerably more citizens in the undergound at rush hour than at polling stations. A safe distance and distribution of personal protective equipment can be provided at the polling stations. Therefore, it is possible to vote in a safe way in one day.

Rybakov said that one of the three voting days is a working day, citizens may be subject to additional pressure from the employer so that cast votes in favour of the ruling party. Also, it is difficult to ensure control of elections on a working day, since this reduces the number of observers at the polling stations.

Nikolai Rybakov also gave an example of the violations during voting in the by-elections to the Saratov Regional Duma on May 14 – 16, 2021. According to the Yabloko Chairman, the turnout at those polling stations where control over the voting was fully ensured was 10 times lower than at those polling stations where there was no observation. Rybakov noted that such results would have been impossible with an honest count of voters who came to the polls.

Rybakov said that the main complaint is that it is impossible to ensure the safety of ballots at night, and the responsibility for replacing them does not come.

Рыбаков сказал, что основная претензия в том, что невозможно обеспечить сохранность бюллетеней ночью, а ответственность за их замену не наступает.

“The liability for all violations will ultimately lie with the Central Electoral Commission, and the Commission has no opportunity to send 300,000 of its controllers to all polling stations of the country during a three-day voting. There will be a lot of people willing to interfere with the safety and content of ballots on election days. There is no need to give them such a chance,” Nikolai Rybakov said. “I urge the Central Electoral Commission to keep the one-day voting.”

Alexander Shishlov also disagreed with the arguments put forward by the head of the Central Electoral Commission. The Ombudsman noted that events of up to 3,000 participants were allowed in St. Petersburg, considerably more than the number of citizens who would be at a polling station at a time.

According to Alexander Shishlov, the existing legal regulation does not guarantee the safety of ballots in a three-day voting. If violations of the procedure for storing ballots are found, the decision on the fate of these ballots is made by the same commission that packed these ballots.

The Ombudsman said that obviously in the event of multi-day voting, new violations are possible and this would lead to increased mistrust in the institution of elections.