Press release, 11.05.2017

The Central Electoral Commission refused Yabloko’s request to recount votes for parliamentary election of 2016 at a number of polling stations in the Republic of Tatarstan. According to Yabloko, the video recordings, which were made at some of the polling stations, give the grounds for the intervention of the Central Electoral Commission and the possibility of appealing to the law enforcement.

According to the Central Electoral Commission, only court can make a decision on the recounting of votes.

The Central Electoral Commission refused Yabloko’s appeal despite the fact that in January Ella Pamfilova, head of the Commission, assured Yabloko’s representatives that “nobody is going to cover up any violations”. “Let us analyse [these issues] within the competence of the Central Electoral Commission in order to prevent further speculations and misunderstanding,” she said.

Yabloko Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybakov said that the Central Electoral Commission was covering up the violations. “If the Central Electoral Commission declares that the video records, which were made at the polling stations, are important and they help to detect violations, they should appeal to the law enforcement themselves without any requests from us,” he noted.

Yabloko did not recognise the results of the election of the 7th State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. According to the party, the elections of 18 September, 2016, demonstrated a deep crisis the state is now in, as well as testified about the destructive developments in the society.

Yabloko also disputed the State Duma election results in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.