FB page by Ivan Bolshakov, 19.12.2020

The Moscow City Electoral Commission has published the names of new members of territorial electoral commissions, which will also conduct elections to the State Duma [in 2021]. It is no secret that the formation of the commissions takes place under the control of the authorities, which send loyal people to them not only from the [pro-government] United Russia party, but also from other parties and public associations.

Regional electoral commissions pretend to take into account applications on a parity basis and form truly multi-party commissions. In fact, territorial electoral commissions include a bunch of people from fake parties and phantom public organisations created specifically for such tasks.

70% of commissions members in Moscow are formally appointed from political parties, and 19% from public associations. But if one takes a closer look, one will see that in addition to the representatives of the United Russia, A Just Russia and the LDPR parties, who fell under the mandatory quota [as parliamentary parties], the 123 formed commissions demonstrate representation of the Rodina party in 96 commissions, Greens in 90 commissions, Patriots of Russia in 83 commissions, the Union of Communist Parties (KPSS) in 80 commissions , Civic Platform in 70 commissions, and the Democratic Party of Russia and the Party of Direct Democracy got more than 40 seats. A number of commissions have representatives of the Party of Progress, Civil Force, People Against Corruption and other spoilers. Apparently the Moscow Electoral Commission considers them to be very influential parties in Moscow with the support of voters. The equally “powerful” and “well-known” public organisations “My Moscow Is My Home” and the Mars-Mercury society are widely represented.

Yabloko submitted 123 applications, but only 44 people were included in the commissions. This is 1.5 times less than before. Even when the party lost its faction in the Moscow City Duma [in 2009 and 2014, resuming the Yabloko faction only in 2019], it was more widely represented in the territorial electoral commissions. Many experienced people, who have worked in the commissions for more than one term, were replaced by beginners – “yes-men” and loyal “dummies”.

Earlier independent members of territorial electoral commissions were in the democratic and protest districts of Moscow, such as the Central Administrative District, the Northern Administrative District, the North-Western Administrative District, the Western Administrative District, and the South-Western Administrative District, now Yabloko has been left mostly in the peripheral districts of Moscow, such as the Southern, the Eastern and the South-Eastern districts, where there are fewer democratic voters. People, as a rule, vote there more actively for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but this time their nominees have been also out.

Parties sending their representatives must submit voting protocols for each candidate. The communists did not do this and provided only a list. As a result, they will not have a single representative at the territorial electoral commissions. It is hard to believe that they don’t know how the documents should be drawn up. Although the lack of proper reaction of their party to this exclusion prompts different thoughts. Considering that [their party leader] Gennady Zyuganov accused “evil foreigners” of financing protests against the removal of candidates to the Moscow City Duma (although candidates were also removed from their party too), and Communist Moscow City Duma MP Nikolai Gubenko nominated United Russia’s Alexei Shaposhnikov as the Moscow City Duma Speaker, any collusion with the authorities can be expected from this party.

Apparently, the authorities are preparing to actively rig the elections. The Kremlin is very much worried about Moscow. Protest moods have risen everywhere, but the capital did not particularly like United Russia even before. Therefore, it is important for the Kremlin to extinguish discontent in Moscow so that as few people as possible have the opportunity to question the voting results.

But this is unlikely to help the authorities. Sign up as observers and control the elections at the polling stations: https://www.yabloko.ru/control