Press Release, 12.09.2019

On the night of September 11-12, the electoral commission of the municipality Ostrov Dekabristov  (Vasileostrovsky District) drew up the election results. The electoral commission manually recounted all ballots in one of the two constituencies (constituency No 22) because of a “typographical error”: there was a small black dot in the forms opposite the name of Natalya Ivanova, candidate from the ruling United Russia party, which was allegedly counted as votes by ballot paper processing machines. However, after the recount, it turned out that Ivanova, another United Russia candidate Olga Poghosyan and LDPR candidate Anastasia Davydova, got the majority, ousting Yabloko representatives, instead of getting a lower number of votes.

As the manual recount, it also turned out that some of the ballots had additional “ticks” for candidates from United Russia and LDPR, which somehow were not noticed by the ballot paper processing machines. Candidates from Yabloko and other opposition parties who were present at the recount noted that additional “ticks” had been set not only in a different handwriting, but even in a different colour.

In some polling stations the result of pro-government candidates increased by four times after recounting. It turned out that the electronic ballot boxes allegedly missed 622 votes for Davydova, 381 vote for Ivanova  and 781 vote for Poghosyan.

The victory was stolen from Yabloko candidates Alexei Zakharov and Natalia Nevzorova. In addition, Alexander Lobovikova, nominated by Yabloko could have counted on victory, as before the ballot recount she had lacked only 31 vote so that to win.

According to Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, the ballots were obviously and boldly rigged, and Yabloko would apply to court so that they are checked and examined for fraud.

Maxim Katz, head of the party’s election headquarters in the municipal elections in St. Petersburg, noted that one of the reasons why demonstrative rigging of the results of municipal elections was taking place in the city was low attention of Russian society to this topic.

“The authorities paid high cost for non-registration of candidates in Moscow, but the theft of mandates in St. Petersburg is very cheap for them. And they are being stolen quietly,” Maxim Katz said.

It should be noted that Yabloko nominated more than 400 candidates for municipal deputies of St. Petersburg. So far, it is reported that about 100 candidates have been able to become deputies. However, the data have not yet been entered into the GAS Vybory system [the federal data base on voting in all elections] in a significant part of the municipal districts where the Yabloko won for almost two days, and official results of the elections in many municipalities have not yet been drawn up.

On 9 September, Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova demanded that the Central Electoral Commission, the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office prevent the rigging of the results of the municipal elections in St. Petersburg. The appeals to the heads of the relevant departments.

Nikolai Rybakov, head of the Yabloko election headquarters and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, met with Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Central Electoral Commission, on 10 September, and handed her an appeal on the fraud in municipal elections in St. Petersburg. Ella Pamfilova informed Viktor Minenko, Chairman of the Electoral Commission of St. Petersburg, about Yabloko’s appeal and demanded that check on all the facts of violations of the law that are listed in the document be conducted.

Pamfilova also assured the Deputy Chairman of Yabloko that the Central Electoral Commission would keep the situation under control.

Lev Shlosberg, head of the Pskov branch of Yabloko and MP of the Psko region, wrote on twitter: The case of St.Petersburg municipal elections 2019 is the case how mafia is taking hold of the city, and residents are defending it. All the mafia people must openly face justice.