Moscow, 18 January: The opposition and public observers believe that there were many more violations of the electoral law in the Russian parliamentary election in December than uncovered by law-enforcement bodies. The Prosecutor-General's Office sent an interim report to President Dmitriy Medvedev on Wednesday (18 January), in which it said that about 3,000 violations of the electoral law had been uncovered during the State Duma election. Administrative proceedings have been launched against about 100 people, and there have been two criminal prosecutions.
Yabloko party chairman Sergey Mitrokhin has described the number of criminal prosecutions as "a drop in the ocean". "If it is followed by other drops, and a trickle gets going, then one can say that the prosecutor's office takes it seriously. So far though there has been a sharp contrast between the information available in open sources, on the internet and in the mass media, and the law-enforcement bodies' reaction to this information," Mitrokhin told RIA Novosti.
He said information about fraud concerned hundreds if not thousands of local electoral commissions. "Where is the reaction to the video posted repeatedly? Where is the reaction to observers' reports that observers were expelled from commissions, that they recorded instances of ballot-stuffing?" the Yabloko leader said. He said that Yabloko was soon going to send letters to Prosecutor-General Yuriy Chayka and Investigation Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin about 15 instances of fraud at polling stations in Moscow.
Political scientist and participant in the Citizen Observer project Dmitriy Oreshkin also believes that there were more violations at the State Duma election, and that most occurred during the vote count. He does not rule out that more criminal proceedings may follow under public pressure. (Passage omitted).
Executive director of the Golos (Vote, or Voice) association Grigoriy Melkonyants believes that the criminal prosecutions were an exhibition ahead of the rallies of the opposition that rejected the results of the parliamentary election. In particular, CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) is planning to hold a rally for fair elections and worthy life on Saturday (21 January), while a march that is to be the follow-up to the rallies For Fair Election in December is scheduled for 4 February.
"Instructions were issued to our law-enforcement bodies to prosecute some people. It is certainly not going to be done on a large scale. This sort of exhibition in view of the upcoming rallies is important for the authorities in that it shows that (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin's will to hold a fair (presidential) election is being supported by some sort of action," Melkonyants said.
He said that many incidents which occur on the day of voting itself "are left outside the scope of legal actions". "Unfortunately, the prosecutor's office does not react properly to publications in the mass media... We know how critical the attitude to the video clips posted online is," Melkonyants said. (Passage omitted: Central Electoral Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov said in early January that most of the clips had been doctored; more background.)
Moscow, 18 January: The opposition and public observers believe that there were many more violations of the electoral law in the Russian parliamentary election in December than uncovered by law-enforcement bodies.
The Prosecutor-General's Office sent an interim report to President Dmitriy Medvedev on Wednesday (18 January), in which it said that about 3,000 violations of the electoral law had been uncovered during the State Duma election. Administrative proceedings have been launched against about 100 people, and there have been two criminal prosecutions.
Yabloko party chairman Sergey Mitrokhin has described the number of criminal prosecutions as "a drop in the ocean". "If it is followed by other drops, and a trickle gets going, then one can say that the prosecutor's office takes it seriously. So far though there has been a sharp contrast between the information available in open sources, on the internet and in the mass media, and the law-enforcement bodies' reaction to this information," Mitrokhin told RIA Novosti.
He said information about fraud concerned hundreds if not thousands of local electoral commissions. "Where is the reaction to the video posted repeatedly? Where is the reaction to observers' reports that observers were expelled from commissions, that they recorded instances of ballot-stuffing?" the Yabloko leader said. He said that Yabloko was soon going to send letters to Prosecutor-General Yuriy Chayka and Investigation Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin about 15 instances of fraud at polling stations in Moscow.
Political scientist and participant in the Citizen Observer project Dmitriy Oreshkin also believes that there were more violations at the State Duma election, and that most occurred during the vote count. He does not rule out that more criminal proceedings may follow under public pressure. (Passage omitted).
Executive director of the Golos (Vote, or Voice) association Grigoriy Melkonyants believes that the criminal prosecutions were an exhibition ahead of the rallies of the opposition that rejected the results of the parliamentary election. In particular, CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) is planning to hold a rally for fair elections and worthy life on Saturday (21 January), while a march that is to be the follow-up to the rallies For Fair Election in December is scheduled for 4 February.
"Instructions were issued to our law-enforcement bodies to prosecute some people. It is certainly not going to be done on a large scale. This sort of exhibition in view of the upcoming rallies is important for the authorities in that it shows that (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin's will to hold a fair (presidential) election is being supported by some sort of action," Melkonyants said.
He said that many incidents which occur on the day of voting itself "are left outside the scope of legal actions". "Unfortunately, the prosecutor's office does not react properly to publications in the mass media... We know how critical the attitude to the video clips posted online is," Melkonyants said. (Passage omitted: Central Electoral Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov said in early January that most of the clips had been doctored; more background.)