Yabloko observers in Chelyabinsk were attacked: they revealed falsifications and canceled the voting results at a polling station
Press Release, 17.09.2021
Photo: Yaroslav Shcherbakov / Photo by the Press Service of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko
Observers from Yabloko, Denis Ibragimov and Anton Serichenko, were attacked by precinct Electoral Commission No. 686 after they were able to identify the stuffing of the ballots. Assistant to United Russia State Duma deputy Vladimir Burmatov attacked the Yabloko obervers with fists. Observers suggest that it was in favour of Burmatov that the ballots were stuffed in.
On 17 September, at 21:00, Renat Yerniyazov, an observer of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko, found in the documents a suspiciously large number of voters who voted at home – more than 600 people. After the announcement of this, the candidates for State Duma deputies Yaroslav Shcherbakov and Nikolai Koshman went to the polling station.
Half an hour later, the observers were attacked by the office of the precinct electoral commission. Yabloko member Anton Serichenko, during a discussion with party supporter Denis Ibragimov of the abnormal 600 voters at the polling station, suggested that the fraud had links with Vladimir Burmatov, a United Russia candidate and current State Duma deputy. Hearing the name of United Russia, a man in sportswear, standing next to them with two other men, attacked Serichenko with fists. As it turned out later, the attacker was Erkin Mamatov, assistant to United Russia’s Burmatov. Denis Ibragimov tried to defend Serichenko, but this did not stop Mamatov. Two more assistants of the United Russia’s deputy joined the attack.
“I tried to calm this bunch of people. It succeeded for a second only, but they tried to switch to me, and I had to defend myself. It started to develop into something bloody,” Denis Ibragimov explained the situation.
After the attackers were taken to the police department, Alexander Lebedev, a member of the Chelyabinsk Regional Electoral Commission from Yabloko, arrived at the scene and raised the issue of recognising the voting results for the day at this precinct station as invalid. The Electoral Commission supported Lebedev and canceled 1,140 ballots for the elections to the State Duma.
Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko Yaroslav Shcherbakov, together with the State Duma candidate Nikolai Koshman, wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee under Article 142 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (falsification of electoral documents).
Posted: September 19th, 2021 under Elections, Regional and Local Elections, Regional and Local Elections 2021, State Duma Elections, State Duma Elections 2021, Yabloko's Regional Branches.