Press Release, 18.12.2017

The general municipal elections of 10 September, 2017, brought to the Pskov branch of Yabloko and its voters not only successes, but also injustice.

Yabloko activists say that fraud organised mainly during early voting (through administrative pressure and bribery) significantly distorted the results of voting.

The Pskov branch of Yabloko challenged the results of the voting to local self-government bodies in three municipalities (Pskov, Velikiye Luki and the Velikiye Luki district).

On 19 September, Yabloko raised administrative lawsuits in city courts in the cities of Pskov and Velikiye Luki, as well as in the Velikiye Luki District Court challenging the results of voting at the polling stations there. The defendants are the Pskov precinct electoral commissions (92 commissions), Velikiye Luki (44 commissions) and the Velikiye Luki District (28 commissions).

All the three courts of first instance refused to accept the lawsuits for consideration, stating that the rights of the electoral association had not been violated.

However, the Pskov regional court, where Yabloko appealed these refusals, abrogated all three refusals and ordered the courts of the first instance to consider the administrative claims of the party on the merits.

On 15 December, the Pskov City Court refused to satisfy Yabloko’s claim due to “failure to provide the evidence” in support of the claim, as the territorial electoral commissions refused to provide the protocols and voters’ appeals they had to submit to court.

This decision of the court will be appealed.

Past week, before the end of the administrative trials with the territorial electoral commissions, the Pskov branch of Yabloko filed administrative lawsuits to cancel election results in three municipalities by party lists as a whole, since this can only be done within three months after the publication of election results and only after appealing the results of voting at polling stations.

The hearings in the Pskov City Court will begin on December 26.

In total the Pskov branch of Yabloko is in six litigations now defending the party’s and voters’ rights following the results of the September 10 elections.

These are the largest trials on the elections in the Pskov region, also the largest as of the number of administrative lawsuits in the history of the Yabloko party.

We believe that the unlawful actions of territorial and precinct electoral commissions in the early voting process deprived the party of representation in the Velikyi Luki City Duma (the party list received 4.87% of votes according to official data) and the Assembly of Deputies of the Velikyi Luki District (4.91% of votes according to official figures), as well as the second mandate for a single electoral district in Pskov, where the party came third on the voting day, but according to the official results it came fourth with 8.53% and received one mandate only.

Violations of the law during early voting affected the outcome of the vote.

Commenting on the progress of the trials, Lev Shlosberg, Chair of the Pskov Yabloko and MP in the Assembly of the Pskov Region, said:

“It is very difficult to challenge in court the results of elections in our country. Organisers of the fraud act according to the logics: first come, first stole, the question is closed, all may go and no claims are accepted.

In most cases, the authorities are interested in the inviolability of election results. Electoral commissions support the status quo, reflected in the final protocols [of the voting], whatever happens in the elections. Such a stance, in our understanding, is incompatible with the law.

Courts are extremely reluctant to take up the cases on challenging the results of elections, in our case, only after the decisions of the regional court the administrative lawsuits were accepted for consideration by the courts of first instance. Courts with rare exceptions do not order the disclosure of the required evidence, including those cases when only a court can do this.

Despite all these circumstances, we decided to file the lawsuits, because their absence means our agreement with the theft of votes, and we will not accept this and will confront it. We are confident in our lawful right. Obviously, these trials will reach the Supreme Court, we are ready for this. Making maximum publicity about violations of the law in elections is also a way to combat violations of the rights of voters and parties.”