Press Release, 2.10.2020

The Moscow Region Court removed eight registered candidates from Yabloko, as well as two independent candidates, from early elections to the Council of Deputies of Shatura.

Lawsuits against opposition candidates were sent to court by candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, LDPR, and A Just Russia. It should be noted that candidates from these parties had a common representative in court. The pretext from removing opposition from elections was the allegedly incomplete package of documents submitted by Yabloko, as well as the alleged corrections in the lists of voters’ signatures submitted in favour of independent candidates. At the same time, independent candidates have copies of signature lists certified by the territorial electoral commission, where there are no corrections or amendments, as well as an inventory of the documents adopted, on the basis of which they were initially successfully registered.

The court of first instance refused to satisfy the claims for procedural reasons: the plaintiffs filed their claims late, violating the established deadlines, but the Moscow Region Court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, ignoring the procedural violations committed by the plaintiffs, as well as the fact that the candidates submitted to the territorial electoral commission their documents in full and properly executed. The courts’ decisions were issued to opposition candidates only on the fourth day, in order to minimise the time allotted for filing a cassation appeal.

The Moscow region branch of Yabloko notes: there is no doubt that this is a planned action aimed at removing all candidates independent from the administration of the city district.

According to Yabloko activists, the unlawful and absurd withdrawal of all opposition candidates may be due to the reluctance of the local authorities to admit independent observers to the polling stations, since the municipal district is headed by Alexei Artyukhin from the ruling United Russia party, Artyukhin “became famous” for large-scale stuffing during the gubernatorial elections in 2018, which was registered by CCTV cameras. Following the publication of the video and the scandal around it, the electoral documents were “spoilt” in an accident with public utilities. At the upcoming elections to the Council of Deputies of the urban district of Shatura, there will be no CCTV cameras. It is noteworthy that the Shatura Territorial Electoral Commission is headed by an employee of the local administration, who is in charge of the legal department.

Early elections of municipal deputies in the city district of Shatura, Moscow region, will be held on October 4.