Regnum, 22.09.2016

The Novgorod branch of the YABLOKO party does not recognise the results of elections to the Novgorod Regional Duma in the single constituency and is going to challenge the results in court. According to the IA REGNUM correspondent, Anna Cherepanova, leader of the YABLOKO list of candidates to the regional parliament made such a statement at a press conference in Novgorod on 21 September.

She also stated that the party would conduct political actions “For Fair Elections” – in the form of pickets, rallies and demonstrations.

“Taken together, all the violations that occurred during the campaign, on the voting day and during counting of votes did not allow the YABLOKO party to get a mandate in the Novgorod Regional Duma. We believe that our mandate was simply stolen,” Cherepanova said.

YABLOKO members believe that the votes of 9,716 Novgorod residents (according to the GAS Vibory – an automate system of votes counting, – there were 9,724 votes) gave YABLOKO the right to a mandate in the Novgorod Regional Duma. Cherepanova noted that it was an “electorally significant result” for the party.

“We are unlawfully declined registration [in the campaign], so we lost time. We were prevented from publishing our political programme in the newspapers and TV channels, The Russian Post refused to distribute our newspaper. The elections in the Novgorod region can not be considered fair, and the results legitimate,” Konstantin Khivrich, YABLOKO candidate for the State Duma and leader of the party faction in the Novgorod Duma, said.

According Khivrich, the results of YABLOKO in the Novgorod region were almost two times higher than all over Russia. According to the regional electoral commission, 9,716 residents of the region (4.83 per cent) voted for YABLOKO in the elections to the Novgorod Regional Duma, and 5,703 (2.81 percent0 of voters in the region voted for YABLOKO for the State Duma.

Also the Novgorod branch of YABLOKO noted abnormally high percentage of voting outside the polling stations in a number of areas (e.g., in Staraya Russa), as well as a large number of invalid ballots: 6,665 in the elections to the Novgorod regional Duma, while the number of invalid votes to the State Duma was 4,602, by 2,000 less.

As IA REGNUM had reported previously, four parliamentary parties passed to the Novgorod Regional Duma. [The ruling] United Russia received 38.92 per cent, the CPRF 19.53 per cent, LDPR 17.3 per cent and A Just Russia 16.11 per cent. YABLOKO gained 4.83 per cent.