Press Release, 15.09.2014

According to the “GAS VIBORY” system, YABLOKO’s candidates gained by an average 12,5% of votes at the Moscow City Duma elections. The party improved its result by two and a half times in comparison with the result of the Mosocw City Duma elections in 2009.

Andrei Babushkin (27,95%, the 11th electoral district), Elena Rusakova (25,63%, the 37th electoral district), Sergei Grigorov (23,93%, the 6th electoral district), Kirill Goncharov (23,75%, the 32nd electoral district) could have won but for the mass-scale use of the admistrative resource.

Four more candidates also came second in their electoral districts. They are Irina Kopkina, (23.58%, the 4th electoral district), Igor Nikolayev (20,23%, the 8th electoral district), Yulia Galyamina (18,18%, the 9th electoral district), Svetlana Savitskaya (14,46%, the 13th electoral district).

Four candidates came third with the result which exceeds 15%: Alexandr Gnezdilov (16,12%, the 44th electoral district), Mikhail Peskov (16,10%, the 2nd electoral district), Maxim Kruglov (15,99%, the 14th electoral district), Mikhail Menshikov (15,56, the 42nd electoral district).

This means that the support of the party for peace and the European way of development is a lot higher than public-opinion polls claim.

“The authorities started to use the administrative resource long before the elections were announced and continued to use it until the very election day”, said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin.

“There’ve been lots of newspapers in the district which told about the pro-government candidates and their circulations were increased many times. The technology of pseudo primaries also played its role which helped to confuse the voters and pull down the voter participation. The opposition candidates didn’t actually have an opportunity for campaigning: our newspapers were systematically pulled out of mail boxes, placards were snatched, advertisement in newspapers and banners were banned”, explained Sergei Mitrokhin.

The apotheosis of the administrative resource use was the annulling of the agreement with YABLOKO on distribution of 200 billboards on behalf of an advertising company due to the direct demand of deputy Moscow mayor Anastasia Rakova.

Both the enforcement to voting and unlawful campaigning methods were used by the authorities. “The pro-government candidates’ campaign offices called the voters on a massive scale on the voting day. Especially cynical is the fact that it was done due the the Mayor’s office direct permission”, noted YABLOKO leader.

The pro-government candidate in the 32nd electoral district won only due to the mass-scale voting of militants and mental hospital patients.

“The Mayor’s office was forced to use the total administrative resource not to let our candidates in the 6th, 11th, 37th and 32nd electoral districts win. In such conditions we gained by an average 12,5%. If the authorities didn’t change the proportional electoral system to majority election system we could have received five or six mandates”, explained Sergei Mitrokhin.

“YABLOKO’s result is the support of the party for peace and the European way of development. The elections have shown that there are a lot more such people than public-opinion polls claim”, claimed YABLOKO leader.

According to Mitrokhin,the main thing was that a large number of Muscovites supported YABLOKO’s policy of opposition to Putin within the country and to Sobyanin[mayor] in Moscow. “It’s a lot more important than any number of mandates in the Moscow City Duma”, noted Mitrokhin.

Sergei Mitrokhin reminded that all YABLOKO candidates signed the political memorandum and agreed that Vladimir Putin’s policy of Russia’s international isolation and a conflict with the West disagrees with the national interests of our country.

All the other parties and candidates touched only the city problems. “Our party did the most work on housing and utilities problems, environment and other things but we spoke about our political stance in the first place at this election”, emphasized Mitrokhin.

“The anti-democratic parliament with no opposition representatives is the result of the Mayor’s office work which made difficulties for our candidates on purpose. The level of voting appearance is a shame for Sobyanin, it was him who killed the Moscow City Duma legitimacy”, summed up Mitrokhin.

“I doubt that we will acknowledge the election results in Moscow. One should take into consideration not only the voting day but the whole campaign. It was unprecedented due to the authorities’ prohibitive actions. The decision will be taken by the regional council, its meeting will be held on Wednesday. I think that we won’t acknowledge the election results”, said Mitrokhin.

YABLOKO leader didn’t exclude that YABLOKO may challenge the majority election system in Moscow in the Constitutional Court: such a system can be established only in Mosocw and St.Petersburg which violates the constitutional equality of the regions of Russia, violates political parties’ rights.