'Golos' has discovered illegal ‘election’ headquarters in Krasnoznamensk

The movement advocating for voters' rights 'Golos' has submitted a complaint to the Central Election Commission and the Regional Election Commission in Moscow concerning the actions of officials of Krasnoznamensk city administration of Moscow region, as RBC reported on July 25.

'Illegal campaign headquarters under the auspices of regional and local administration have become attributable to the Russian elections. Recently, we have attained the closure of the headquarters in the Perm region under the auspices of governor office and initiation of prosecutor's pursuit in the Krasnodar region concerning the headquarters under the local administration. In a few days our pre-election Internet monitoring has resulted in revelation of several headquarters. One of them is situated in the Moscow region city Krasnoznamensk' – the movement posted on Facebook.

The movement activists have found out on the official website of Krasnoznamensk administration a document which lists the staff of 'headquarters for the Election to the State Duma'.

The document says that the head of administration Alexandr Kondrashtin holds the office of chief of staff and the head of executive committee of the Krasnoznamensk office of the party 'United Russia' Galina Klymentyeva - the deputy chief. Among the staff members is the deputy chairman of the Council of Deputies representing 'United Russia' Anatoly Trishin and the deputy chairman of the Council of Deputies, the first deputy secretary of the local office of 'United Russia' Alexandr Chernikov, 'responsible for coordination of 'United Russia' cooperation with MORO'. The staff is responsible for 'support to candidates', 'organization of meetings', and among the staff posts – 'communication manager', 'field support staff' and 'finance manager'.

Election commissions are responsible for preparing and running elections and the 'state and municipal authorities, state and municipal agencies, as well as their officials' are entitled 'to provide support to commissions in the exercise of their powers' (Art. 20 of the Federal Law N 67-FZ 'On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in a referendum of citizens of the Russian Federation').

The information has been removed from the website, but the activists - and cache of 'Yandex' - saved the document.

The existence of such headquarters under the auspices of local government involving its officials and municipal staff is in breach of the election law and the law on municipal service, explains to RBC the co-chairman of movement Gregory Melkonyants. 'Either we are talking about the activities of the municipal administration in the interests of political parties or the misuse of logistical resources of local authorities in the same interests by municipal staff,' - as 'Golos' reveals in its statement.  Making the officials responsible for activities in the interest of the party concerning the responsibilities they hold within the municipal service, especially without issuing to them a leave for the period of the election campaign, inevitably induces conflict of interest and implicates a direct violation of the law, as experts of the movement pointed out.

In an interview with TV channel 'Dozhd', the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Deputies of Krasnoznamensk Alexander Chernikov stated that the administration website was hacked in order to post 'misinformation'. 'We have not posted any information on our website. <...> Someone broke into our website and posted information on the different pages of the official website. It is the third time someone posts false information that afterwards disappears', - explained Chernikov.

The Central Election Commission has not yet received the 'Golos' complaint, as on July 26 stated to 'Vedomosti' the CEC member Maya Grishina, noting that the Moscow territorial election commission should be the first one to address this issue. The representatives of Moscow territorial election commission did not comment the issue to the press service.

We would like to remind that on the Single Election Day, 18 September 2016, Election to the State Duma of the VII convocation is held, as well as many regional and local elections, including the Gubernatorial Election in seven regions of Russia, the election to regional legislative bodies in 39 territorial entities and the election to representative bodies of local government in 11 administrative centres of the RF regions. On this day, the Election to the Regional Moscow Duma is held.

The ‘Golos’ complaint concerning the possible violations of the election laws in Krasnoznamensk will be referred to law enforcement agencies, as on July 26 the chairman of the Election Commission of the Moscow Region Irina Konovalova informed RIAMO.