Third express overview of civic observation on the single day of voting on September 11, 2022

General Statistics

The Golos movement is conducting short-term observation in 19 regions. Voting is monitored for its compliance with international and Russian standards for free expression of the will and is based on data from the regions shared by participants and organizers of voting, observers and media representatives, through various channels, including the hotline 8 800 500 54 62, the Map of Violations, media, Internet, social media, and messengers.

On the third day of voting, by 6 p.m. Moscow time on September 11, Golos had received 186 calls to its hotline (the total hotline call time 11 hours and 27 minutes) and 298 reports to the Map of Violations and other telecom channels. 

Throughout the election campaign, we have received 527 calls to the hotline (the total hotline call time 1 day, 10 hours and 21 minutes) and 1,539 reports to the Map of Violations and other telecom channels. 

The top five regions by the number of the reports on possible violations submitted to the Violations Map on September 11:

1. Moscow City - 107
2. Moscow Oblast - 47
3. Saint Petersburg - 40
4. Krasnodar Krai - 39
5. Pskov Oblast - 9

The regions submitting the most reports to the Map of Violations throughout the election campaign period currently are:

1. Moscow City - 626
2. Krasnodar Krai - 168
3. Udmurt Republic - 88
4. Moscow Oblast - 80
5. Kirov Oblast - 67

Main Election Day trends

Restrictions on the rights of citizens to monitor the work of election commissions, and pressure on candidates and observers

By the end of voting, tension at the polling stations was growing. The number of reports claiming that commission members, police and unauthorized persons put psychological pressure on observers has also increased (e.g., PEC 0274 in Anapa, Krasnodar region; PEC 413 in Sokol district Moscow, PEC 2374 in Teplyi Stan district; PEC 378 in Pustoshkinski rayon, Pskov oblast; PEC 2119 in Akademicheskiy rayon; Gultiai TEC of Pustoshkinsky District, Pskov Oblast; and PEC 2119 TEC of the Akademichesky District).

According to OVD-Info, 19 people were detained throughout Russia in connection with the elections. Nine of them were candidates and five were observers. Also detained were a deputy, a candidate's proxy, a TEC member with voting rights, a PEC member with voting rights, and a voter:

• Veronika Akmanova was detained in St. Petersburg for picketing for fair elections on Nevsky Avenue;
• Ilya Myakinin, a candidate from the Yabloko party, was detained at polling station 59 in Moscow, for allegedly interfering in the work of the commission;
• Voter Lev Karmanov was detained at PEC 2043 in Moscow because of a tampered ballot paper;
• The police detained observer Ivan Murzinov at PEC 2577 in Moscow, as well as two candidates, Maxim Petrunin and Elena Propisnova. They attempted to film military personnel being dropped off at PEC 2577;
• In Pskov, the proxy of the Yabloko party’s candidate Daniil Yanturayev was detained;
• In Moscow, the police detained the linguist Alexey Kasyan, a candidate to municipal deputies in the Lomonosovsky District from the Yabloko party, at about 1 a.m.;
• In Moscow, police detained the CPRF candidate for the Obruchevsky District, Roman Galenkin;
• In Moscow, police detained Nikita Verzun, a candidate from the Vydvizheniye platform in the Sokolniki District;
• Lermontov Town Court in Stavropol Krai arrested Andrei Fokin, a proxy of candidate Kardash, for 7 days;
• In Moscow, observer Kseniya Tamurka was detained at polling station 47 in Zamoskvorechye;
• In Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Krai), Roman Pilipenko, a voting TEC member, was detained;
• In Kuznetsk (Penza Oblast) police detained CPRF’s two candidates to the regional Legislative Assembly, Ruslan Bakhteyev and Nikolai Lavrikov;
• Election observer Olga Nikishina was detained in Moscow around 8:30 a.m.;
• Rasul Yagudov, a municipal council candidate for the Basmanniy District, was detained in Moscow in the morning before the voting started;
• In Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Krai), Roman Pilipenko, a voting TEC member, was detained.

Some PEC chairpersons even managed to play hide-and-seek with observers (e.g., PEC 2287 of the Lomonosovsky TEC in Moscow)

In Belaya Glina, Krasnodar Krai, at PEC 501, an observer registered in Krasnodar was suspended from his duties by a judge of the Beloglinsky district court on the grounds that he allegedly had no active suffrage in that constituency. In reality, however, the law provides that any citizen with the active right to vote in a given election may be an observer. Krasnodar Krai is holding elections of the Legislative Assembly, which means that any voter registered in the region can be an observer.

There are cases of pressure on candidates. For example, unknown persons tried to block the car of the CPRF candidate for the Duma of Vladivostok, Artur Timoshenko.

Home voting

There are still reports of violations of the mobile voting procedure. The use of this form of voting for military personnel and students of military schools is open to doubt.

At PEC 114 in St. Petersburg, the electoral register did not contain any information about mobile voting for those voters who had applied for home voting. At the same time, 491 voters had applied for mobile voting, which is due to the presence of a closed facility – a military unit, on the territory of which it was eventually carried out. In accordance with clause 9 of article 66 of FZ-67, in order to avoid double voting a mark "mobile voting" should be made in front of each voter who had applied for mobile voting before a group of commission members went out to voters’ homes.

In St. Petersburg, the chairperson of PEC 1268 did not allow some of the observers to attend mobile voting. The voting station is located in the psycho-neurological boarding school, while the voters are patients of the institution. Voting at home also means voting in patients' rooms. Only observers from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and Public Chambers were allowed to accompany members of the commission during the mobile voting. Other observers were not allowed into the wards, even though they had clearly stated their wish in advance.

In the city of Anapa, Krasnodar Krai, at polling station #277, dead voters were put on the register. A complaint was filed.

The St. Petersburg City Election Commission issued an appeal stating that media representatives and proxies did not have the right to be present during mobile voting. In reality, the law does not prohibit the presence of persons with these statuses at home voting. The only restriction is that they may enter residential premises only with the consent of the residents.

Violation of Active Voting Rights

There continue to be reports that voters could not vote at the polling station because they had allegedly already voted remotely.

For example, the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, was transferred to electronic voting without his consent. Mironov came to the polling station, but he was not in the voter database. The politician said he was in favour of face-to-face voting because it was easier to stuff "ballots" at the electronic one. "Apparently, everyone is already being transferred to remote voting on a voluntary-forced basis," Mironov said indignantly on Twitter.

Messages started coming in from voters who came to the polling station on Sunday but found that someone had already voted for them (e.g., Krasnodar TEC 2057 Zapadnaya).