Second express overview of public observation on the single voting day on September 10, 2023
Key trends of the voting day
Creating obstacles in the activities of candidates, their representatives, observers, and media representatives.
In Marx, Saratov region, self-nominated candidate Vyacheslav Lomidze complained that he was attacked by United Russia observer Yuri Orlov, brother of candidate Nikolai Orlov. According to Lomidze, Orlov verbally abused him, stepped on his foot, and started twisting his arm.
The candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation to the Kurultai of Bashkortostan, Konstantin Zubrilin, was served a summons to the military conscription office when exiting the school, where polling stations No. 503 and 504 are located (where stuffing was recorded, more on which below). The candidate went to the police to report the stuffing.
By the way, the Gelendzhik municipal control center confirmed that two election observers had previously been given summonses to the military conscription office «to check their personal details.» Previously, representatives of the military conscription office denied it.
In Bashkortostan, Konstantin Zarubin, the financial plenipotentiary of the candidate for the Kurultai from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ilgam Galin, reported harassment: according to him, a black BMW bearing foreign license plates was following him everywhere, although he made several arbitrary turns trying to shake it off.
After an observer at PEC 2425 in the Moscow region demanded that the commission stop working with the lists, the chairperson pushed her away, demanding that she take «her place, ” threatening to remove her from the precinct and sue her.
Many complaints are coming in about restrictions on the rights of observers in Bashkortostan. Observers are denied movement around the premises, in an attempt to corral them into a dedicated «area» for observation. Reportedly, in several cases, active observers were recalled from polling stations by the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia — For Truth. A similar complaint came from the town of Pushkino near Moscow.
In Krasnodar, the deputy chairman of one of the PECs refused to allow an observer and a member of the commission to familiarize themselves with the voter lists — under the pretext that the commission allegedly did not have such a duty.
The commission in Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, decided to use court proceedings to remove its voting member from «A Just Russia — For Truth, ” Elena Vasilyeva, for «chaotic» movement around the premises, which «made the voters and commission members nervous», and making videos without the permission of PEC members. Earlier, the woman discovered signs of a «carousel voting» at the polling station and 40 extra ballots in the ballots processing unit (KOIB) compared to the figures in the books.
The chairman of PEC No. 3362 in Shcherbinka (a city in Moscow municipality), Tatyana Kitaeva, refused to allow three journalists into the polling station. She did not give reasons for her actions, nor did she accept resulting complaints from the journalists. Previously, journalists complained about being denied access to another polling station of Shcherbinka (3368).
Signs of possible fraud
At PECs No. 0937 and 0938 in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory, on the night of September 9-10, safe packages were opened in the absence of observers. This was announced by the candidate from the Communist Party to the Duma of the city Ivan Lapin.
In the Samara region, observers reported a possible opening of a sealed safe during the night — attaching photographs from September 9 and 10. At the same time, the election commission stated that there were no violations.
In Krasnodar, the chairman came to polling stations No. 2126, 2127 and 2128 at 6 a.m., although the commissions were supposed to start working at 7 a.m., reports candidate for city Duma deputy Roman Polivoda. At the same time, the voting member of the commission was not allowed into the station — he was pushed out by a policeman.
On the premises of PEC No. 327 in Shuya, Ivanovo region, after closing on September 9, candidates for deputies of the Ivanovo Regional Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation V.V. Vozilov and S.V. Kargapoltsev discovered that the chairman of the commission A.B. Shmelev entered the territory of the polling station and was seen tampering with safe packages and ballots in a separate office near the polling station. The red signal tape indicates that A.B. Shmelev has a safe package in his hands while putting stacks of ballots in. He then left the PEC and headed to his car, holding a large black bag in his hands. S.V. Kargapoltsev tried to stop him to call the law enforcement, but Shmelev got into the car and committed a hit-and-run, knocking down S.V. Kargapoltsev taking off.
Observers of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation reported stuffing at polling station No. 504 in Neftekamsk (Bashkortostan) — a stack of ballots was noticed in the ballot box. Stuffing was also discovered at neighboring polling station No. 503: a stack of ballots in a ballot box was discovered by observer Elvira Koroleva. The chairmen of these two PECs are spouses Sergei and Kristina Pudovkin.
A case of possible «electronic stuffing» has also been reported. A resident of Moscow was unable to vote electronically because the system indicated that she had allegedly already received an electronic ballot. At the same time, she checked the login history for the last month and did not find anything suspicious; in addition, the account login, according to her, is protected by two-factor authentication.
The Lipetsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation announced an anomalous turnout in the village of Ekaterinovka, Yelets District — 50 people per hour (whereas the total number of voters in the village is 326, and a little more than 30 people voted during the entire first day) — and at the very moment when the Communist Party observer was absent from the polling station. According to a member of the commission, it was because «a family of gypsies came to vote.»
Signs of a «carousel voting» were reported in Krasnoyarsk — according to observers, one voter voted in two different polling stations in the same school: he was photographed in front of members of two different commissions.
At PEC No. 2425 in the Moscow region, where a stuffing was discovered on Friday, members of the commission began working with voter lists even before the opening of the polling station — some data was entered into the lists, loose sheets were noticed.
Coercion to electronic voting.
An observer from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation reported that Election Commission No. 2645 of Moscow «pressures voters to vote electronically, and then smoothly suggests them what box to check.»
On the morning of September 10, there were still reports of widespread coercion of voters to vote using electronic terminals rather than paper ballots. Observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation reported similar cases in the Lomonosovsky, Kuzminki, Mozhaisky, Dorogomilovo, and Perovo districts.
Commission No. 1373 in Kuzminki reportedly constantly changed the rules for issuing paper ballots, creating an artificial queue.
Bribery and coercion to vote.
It is alleged that the head of the Novosibirsk region Andrey Mikhailov promised to award the three village councils with the highest turnout with a «Gazelle» minibus. This is stated in the audio recording referred to by the Communist Party. According to party members, the recording is being shared across local allotments chat rooms and district institutions.
In Bashkortostan, employees of the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the city of Birsk complained about a threat from the chief physician, Yuri Sadovsky, to dock their bonuses if they would fail to show up for the elections, while redistributing the money in favor of those who went to vote.
Employees of the Koksovaya enrichment plant in Prokopyevsk told journalists that they were being forced to go to vote and call to check-in after voting.
In Novy Urengoy, PEC No. 620 allegedly kept a record of employees of budgetary organizations who came to vote — a torn list of such organizations was found in the ballot box by TEC member Tatyana Yakubova.
Violation of voting rules.
In Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo Region, members of PEC No. 911, who went to home voting, invited voters to vote simply in the street, citing the permission of the chairman.
A similar case was recorded in the village of Ukrainka, Novosibirsk region, where the commission was walking around the village and entering houses, while not having a register of requests for home-based voting. At the same time, the head of the regional election commission, Olga Blago, did not see this as a violation of any sort: «There are settlements where there are no voting premises. For such places, including Ukrainka, it was determined that at the right time, members of the commission would go to the settlement and organize voting, ” she said.
Facts and figures
Voting monitoring is carried out by the «Golos» movement for its compliance with international and Russian standards of free expression of will and is based on data received from regions from voting participants and organizers, observers and media representatives, through various channels, including the 8 800 500-54-62 hotline, «Map of Violations», media, Internet, social media and instant messengers.
On the third day of voting, as of 2:30 PM Moscow time on September 10, the «Golos» movement received 94 reports to the «Map of Violations» and through other electronic communication channels.
In total, during the election campaign, 885 reports were submitted to the «Map of Violations» and through other electronic communication channels.
The top-scoring regions in terms of the number of reports of possible violations via the «Map of Violations» as of September 10:
- 1. Moscow — 20
- 2. Moscow region — 17
- 3. Московская область — 16
- 4 — 6. Bashkortostan, Ivanovo region, Ryazan region — 4 each
The distribution of top scorers by the reports to the «Map of Violations» as a whole for the campaign period currently looks like this:
- Moscow — 144
- Moscow region — 127
- Khakassia — 59
- Ivanovo region — 58
- Novgorod region — 49
