Pressure on voters and state control over social media accounts
25.08.2021
This is the fourth 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 16 and August 22. 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 the 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 the 16th to August 22, 98 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 - 35
- Violations of the rules of campaigning in the media - 28
- Violations of the rules of print and outdoor campaigning - 20
- Wrongful refusals of registration and violation of the candidate's rights - 10
- Pressure from the authorities, coercion, bribery of voters - 7
- Threats to one's life, health, or property - 4
- Violation of the rights of members of the commission, observers, media - 1
- Violation when collecting signatures - 1
Leaders in the number of reports over the past week:
- Samara Oblast - 15
- Moscow - 11
- Kirov Oblast - 9
- Krasnodarskiy Krai - 7
- Altaiskiy Krai, Ivanovskaya, Oryol, and Tambov oblasts - 6
Since the beginning of the election campaign, 556 messages from 64 regions have been published on the 'Map of Violations.'
Major trends
- The number and main nature of reported violations remain the same as last week. The most widespread type of violation is the use of administrative resources in favor of the United Russia party and its candidates. Such types of reports came from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Altaiskiy, Permskiy, and Krasnodarskiy krais, the Republics of Kalmykia and Ossetia, Rostov, Ivanovsk, Samara, Tomsk, Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Oryol, and Novgorod oblasts.
- Violations of the rules of campaigning in the media and during the placement of print and outdoor campaigning were reported from Moscow, the Republics of Karelia, Kalmykia, Tatarstan, Altaiskiy, Primorskiy, Permskiy, and Krasnodarskiy krais, Moscow, Tomsk, Ivanovo, Samara, Novgorod, Kirov, Volgograd, Saratov, and Ulyanovsk oblasts.
Top 5 reports of the week
On August 18, the Ministry of Justice of Russia added the 'Golos' Movement1 into the registry of unregistered public associations performing the functions of a foreign agent2 under No. 1. 'An citizen of the Republic of Armenia' was indicated as a source of foreign funding for the movement's activities. On the same day, Golos issued a statement3 that considered this decision politically motivated and aimed at obstructing independent observation of elections in Russia.
In St. Petersburg, the local parliament tried to interfere4 with the work of the election commission. On August 18, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg adopted a resolution on the early termination of the powers of the Secretary of the City Election Commission Marina Zhdanova. Notably, the law does not allow terminating the powers of election commission members with the decisive voting powers during the election campaign. In addition, a motivated appeal of the subject of nomination that proposed the member is required. In this case, the subject is the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation and by no means the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
The resolution on the early termination of powers was adopted immediately after Marina Zhdanova had voted for re-checking the signatures in support of the nomination of Olga Gerasina, a candidate for the city deputy, when the Territorial Election Commission No. 7, which organizes elections in the respective district, refused her registration. Gerasina intended to compete against Denis Chetyrbok, United Russia member, the Head of the Legislative Committee, and a close associate of the Speaker of the St. Petersburg parliament Vyacheslav Makarov.
On August 19, at a meeting of the City Election Commission, a decision was made to file a claim with the Oktyabrsky District Court to appeal the decision of the Legislative Assembly.
In Irkutsk Oblast, police are forced5 to change polling stations and vote for one of the candidates. This was announced by the director of the Center for Civic Assistance Alexei Tupitsin: 'Starting on August 2, employees of the city and transport police began to massively file complaints about being forced to vote early in special precincts for one of the candidates. They are strongly advised to take applications for early voting (absentee ballots) at their location. Complaints are of the same type and boil down to the fact that the heads of departments oblige their subordinates to receive absentee ballots and, after receiving a special command, to vote for a certain candidate under their supervision. They are obliged to send the [photo] of a ballot with a respective mark to their immediate superior.'
Alexey Tupitsin sent an appeal to the city prosecutor with a request to investigate cases of coercion to vote.
In the Altaiskiy Krai, on August 17, the court overturned6 the election commission's decision on the registration of Viktor Rau for the election of State Duma deputies in Barnaul single-mandate district No. 39. The claim was filed by the candidate from the Just Russia party, Alexander Molotov.
Alexander Molotov stated that the Yabloko member could not participate in the elections due to the fact that he is a supporter of the 'Navalny Headquarters' movement, which is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia. The participation in rallies for the release of political prisoners was considered to be evidence of such support.
In Ryazan oblast, at the end of June, social media accounts of all educational institutions of Ryazan (schools, lyceums, gymnasiums, kindergartens, etc.) came to be controlled by the city administration. In particular, educators were required to make a 'technical account' named after a fictional user 'Sergey Pravochkin' the moderator of kindergarten and school groups in Odnoklassniki and VKontakte. This is the account of the Ryazan Regional Governance Center – a body created at the end of last year, ostensibly to monitor and respond to citizens' appeals in official groups of authorities and Ryazan's popular social media pages. The group administrators had to make 'Sergei Pravochkin' the administrator of the VKontakte groups and the super-moderator in Odnoklassniki by June 28, 2021.
Afterward, one of the first posts to appear in such groups was a video about the program for the reconstruction of rural schools, developed with the support of United Russia and Vladimir Putin personally. In a social media post dated August 2, which appeared simultaneously on the pages of educational institutions from all over the region, Elena Shmeleva, the head of the 'Sirius' Center for Gifted Children, was glorified as someone who develops a menu for schools and is engaged in the reconstruction. Incidentally, Shmeleva is one of the five candidates on top of the list of United Russia in the elections to the State Duma. The materials are of a clear campaigning nature and are broadcast to the educational institutions of the region without their consent.
References:
1 The major independent citizen election observation movement in the Russian Federation - REM
2 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58413
3 A translation of the statement may be found here - REM
4 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58430
