PCR tests for voters and candidate flights at public expense
20.08.2021
This is the third overview of reports of possible violations of electoral legislation gathered via the 'Map of Violations' by the Movement in Defense of Voters' Rights 'Golos' between August 9 and August 15. The Map is a project that collects information about possible electoral violations using the principle of crowdsourcing – observers, voters, members of commissions may report alleged violations witnessed during electoral campaigning or voting using a submission form on the website or a telephone hotline. Pre-moderated submissions are published on https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/.
In total, from August 9 to August 15, 96 messages were received by the Map.
Typology of violations
The typology of potential violations is as follows (one message may constitute more than one type of violation):
- Abuse of administrative resources – 52
- Violations of the rules of campaigning in the media – 27
- Violations of the rules of print and outdoor campaigning – 12
- Wrongful refusals of registration and violation of the candidate's rights – 7
- Pressure from the authorities, coercion, bribery of voters – 5
- Violation of the rights of members of the commission, observers, media – 2
- Threats to one's life, health, or property – 1
Leaders in the number of violations over the past week:
- Novgorod Oblast – 16
- Moscow Oblast – 14
- Rostov Oblast – 12
- Moscow – 9
- Krasnodarskiy Krai – 6
- Samara Oblast – 6
Since the beginning of the election campaign, 452 messages from 62 regions have been published on the Map of Violations.
Major trends
The number of reported violations has decreased since last week. This is due to the fact that the stage of registration of candidates is coming to an end, and many 'inconvenient' politicians have already been barred from participating in elections.
As before, most of the incoming information concerns the abuse of administrative resources by the authorities in favor of certain candidates from United Russia. This can be the placement of positive information about them on the official public websites, assistance in organizing campaign events, and the use of state budgetary resources in the election campaign. Such messages were received last week from St. Petersburg, Krasnodarskiy Krai, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Republics of Adygea, Bashkortostan, Khakassia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Vologda, Murmansk, Tambov, Rostov, Samara, Tomsk, Moscow, Volgograd, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk oblasts.
TOP 5 violations of the week
On August 12, the Russian Embassy in Austria decided to restrict the suffrage of Russian citizens. On the territory of Austria, two polling stations were formed for voting in the elections of deputies to the State Duma on September 19: at the embassy in Vienna and at the Consulate General in Salzburg. However, as follows from the information posted on the official website of the embassy, admission to the territory of polling stations is to be carried out only upon presentation of the confirmation of having recovered from COVID-19, vaccination, or negative Coronavirus test.
Such a restriction violates Art. 4 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation: '2. A citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to elect, be elected, participate in a referendum regardless of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, property and official status, place of residence, attitude to religion, beliefs, membership of public associations, and other circumstances, ' and also Art. 4 20 of Federal Law 'On the election of deputies of the State Duma.'
After the publication of the report on the Map of Violations and in the media, the Russian Embassy in Vienna announced the lifting of the restrictions.
Some media reported that in Khakassia1, the candidate for the State Duma, United Russia deputy, Sergei Sokol, flew with his son to visit eremite Agafya Lykova during the election campaign. He may have used state transport, which is prohibited by law. Acting Minister of Nature of Khakassia Olga Lushnikova turned to the Ministry of Natural Resources with a request to inspect the actions of Sergei Sokol. The candidate posted about the trip on his Facebook page.
In Moscow, the working group of the Chertanovsky District Election Commission #210 recommended2 that opposition politician Roman Yuneman be refused registration for the State Duma elections. According to Yuneman, 1,594 signatures collected in his support (with the acceptable threshold of 745) were declared invalid. 'More than 1000 were rejected by the "check against the base of the Ministry of Internal Affairs," plus almost 250 by graphologists, plus189 signatures were recognized as duplicates. This is complete nonsense,' said candidate hopeful. In addition, the electoral commission considered the signature sheets to be in the wrong format, although Yuneman himself said that they were prepared according to the standard.
In Krasnodar, 269 members of election commissions were not recalled3 from their positions, although they remain to be subordinates of a candidate. On Zapadnaya, Tsentralnaya and Karasunskaya territorial election commissions, which are part of the District #46, city mayor Yevgeny Pervyshov is registered as a candidate from the United Russia party and 269 members of the commissions (both precinct and territorial) are employees of the Krasnodar municipal district, i.e. subordinates of the mayor, which is directly prohibited by clause 1 of Art. 29 of Federal Law 67 'On basic guarantees of electoral rights...': 'Members of commissions with the decisive vote cannot be persons who are directly subordinate to candidates.' A complaint was filed with the Election Commission of the Krasnodarskiy Krai.
In Tomsk Oblast, the regional branch of the United Russia party collects so-called 'people's orders' by mailing and coercion of state employees. 4 Tomsk secondary school principals have received a directive which states that 'it is necessary to organize the participation of the staff of your institution in making proposals to the people's program of the United Russia party.' It was followed by specific instructions5 on how to do it. State employees were required to provide the first report on the implementation of the directive until August 6, and then – weekly, until complete execution.
References:
1 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58275
2 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58263
3 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58223
