Independent report lists numerous irregularities in 2007 Russian Duma election
Interfax
Moscow, 30 January: Experts of the Independent Institute of Election have said that from the formal point of view the election of deputies of the fifth State Duma (in December 2007) was the most successful of all the parliamentary elections but "when analysing the campaign in terms of fundamental criteria, numerous problems are laid bare".
"We can conclude that the election of State Duma deputies was not fully in line with Russian constitutional standards, with international democratic standards or with the international obligations undertaken by the Russian Federation," says the report drawn up by the institute.
In particular, its authors note that "there were serious departures from the principle of free elections, in that part of the electorate was coerced to take part, and there were individual attempts to control the way people voted".
"One of the forms of pressure was the coercion of those who work for state and municipal organizations to obtain absentee ballots. This coercion was combined with the demand that they should use these ballot to vote at designated polling stations, usually at their place of work," the authors of the report note.
In their opinion, "this coercion was indicated by a substantial increase in the number of absentee ballots issued to voters". "The number of absentee ballots issued at the Central Electoral Commission was 110 per cent up compared with the 2003 State Duma election and 50 per cent up compared with the 2004 presidential election," the authors of the report say.
The report also says that "at the same time, insufficient measures were taken to prevent multiple voting at these and a number of other polling stations: reports were received from a number of cities and towns that anyone was allowed to vote at those stations, without having his residence address checked or having to present an absentee ballot".
In particular, the report notes that of the 4,327 voters who voted at the seven (polling) stations set up at Moscow railway terminals, only 2,308 (53 per cent) voted with absentee ballots.
On the subject of absentee ballots, the authors of the report also note that in some regions their number increased by several thousand per cent compared with the 2003 election: by 5,700 per cent in Chechnya, by 5,500 per cent in the Republic of Komi, by 5,100 per cent in the Republic of Khakassia, by 3,100 per cent in Tyumen Region, etc.
The experts also draw attention to the fact that most of the recent changes in the electoral law "are proscriptive or restrictive, and they all reduce the protection of people's electoral rights: only the rights of parliamentary parties and particularly of party bureaucracy have been extended".
"The ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) mission of the OSCE made a number of recommendations following the election of the fourth State Duma (in 2003), including recommendations on changing the electoral law. Of these recommendations, only one, the least justified, was acted upon: the abolition of the voting against all candidates. At the same time, a number of provisions of the law were changed in the direction opposite to the recommended course," the report notes.
Its authors also point out that the results of the voting showed that the electoral roll had nearly 1.5m more people on it than three weeks before the polling day.
The report says: "the largest number of available facts giving rise to suspicions of rigging concern the results of voting in Moscow". In particular, it compares the results from the polling stations where electronic systems for processing ballot papers were installed with those where votes were counted manually.
"The comparison shows significant differences. We believe that with the (electronic) systems for processing ballot papers, it was impossible to rig the process of vote counting and extremely difficult to throw in (extra) ballot papers. It would therefore be logical to suggest that the differences observed were mainly related to rigging in favour of One Russia at those stations were votes were counted manually," the experts say.
The editorial board of the report includes head of the Independent Institute of Elections Aleksandr Ivanchenko, president of the National Investment Council Aleksandr Lebedev and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.