Moscow, 1 February: On Wednesday (1 February), representatives of five political parties, the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), A Just Russia, the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), Yabloko and Patriots of Russia, sent a collective appeal to the head of the Central Electoral Commission, Vladimir Churov, urging him to change the principle of formation of electoral commissions at presidential elections. "We are making a demand to give up one party's monopoly in forming electoral commissions and introduce mandatory rules of forming the leadership of district electoral commissions from representatives of different political parties on the basis of parity," says the document, the text of which has been obtained by Interfax.
It contains a demand by representatives of the five political parties "to elect the chairman, his deputy and the executive secretary of electoral commissions solely from among representatives of different political parties".
The document contains approval of measures aimed at installing video cameras at all polling stations, however, (they) consider this to be clearly insufficient to prevent possible rigging of voting results.
"We welcome the decision to equip all polling stations with web-cameras, however, we are extremely concerned about possible inefficient spending of R15bn of taxpayers' money on this. The installation of the web-cameras, taking into account a pause in transmission between 2000 and 2100 Moscow time (1600-1700 gmt), as well as what amounts to a ban on the use by observers and members of commissions of individual devices for video recording, could in the end only exacerbate instances of rigging on the part of administrations trying "to ensure the necessary result". Since no static web-cameras would be able to stop the so-called "roundabouts", that is, controlled voting, organized supply of employees from continuous-work-cycle enterprises, as well as organized supply of voters from other regions," this document notes.
Its authors demand the "mandatory" installation "of transparent ballot boxes for voting at polling stations".
"In order to restore trust of the people, the authorities should take all possible measures to prevent distortion of the expression of will of citizens at the upcoming elections of the Russian president, as well as deputies of municipal assemblies. This is they only way to remove the extreme degree of social tension in society, which has manifested itself in mass protest actions all over the country," the authors of the appeal to the Central Electoral Commission note.
This document was signed by the head of the Moscow branch of the CPRF, Valeriy Rashkin, the chairman of the council of the regional branch of A Just Russia party, Aleksandr Ageyev, the coordinator of the Moscow branch of the LDPR, Vladimir Sobolev, the first deputy head of the Moscow branch of the Yabloko party, Galina Mikhaleva, and the head of the Moscow branch of the Patriots of Russia party, Sergey Glotov.
(Passage omitted: Rashkin's comments on the document)
Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia News - Russia
Moscow, 1 February: On Wednesday (1 February), representatives of five political parties, the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), A Just Russia, the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), Yabloko and Patriots of Russia, sent a collective appeal to the head of the Central Electoral Commission, Vladimir Churov, urging him to change the principle of formation of electoral commissions at presidential elections.
"We are making a demand to give up one party's monopoly in forming electoral commissions and introduce mandatory rules of forming the leadership of district electoral commissions from representatives of different political parties on the basis of parity," says the document, the text of which has been obtained by Interfax.It contains a demand by representatives of the five political parties "to elect the chairman, his deputy and the executive secretary of electoral commissions solely from among representatives of different political parties".
The document contains approval of measures aimed at installing video cameras at all polling stations, however, (they) consider this to be clearly insufficient to prevent possible rigging of voting results.
"We welcome the decision to equip all polling stations with web-cameras, however, we are extremely concerned about possible inefficient spending of R15bn of taxpayers' money on this. The installation of the web-cameras, taking into account a pause in transmission between 2000 and 2100 Moscow time (1600-1700 gmt), as well as what amounts to a ban on the use by observers and members of commissions of individual devices for video recording, could in the end only exacerbate instances of rigging on the part of administrations trying "to ensure the necessary result". Since no static web-cameras would be able to stop the so-called "roundabouts", that is, controlled voting, organized supply of employees from continuous-work-cycle enterprises, as well as organized supply of voters from other regions," this document notes.
Its authors demand the "mandatory" installation "of transparent ballot boxes for voting at polling stations".
"In order to restore trust of the people, the authorities should take all possible measures to prevent distortion of the expression of will of citizens at the upcoming elections of the Russian president, as well as deputies of municipal assemblies. This is they only way to remove the extreme degree of social tension in society, which has manifested itself in mass protest actions all over the country," the authors of the appeal to the Central Electoral Commission note.
This document was signed by the head of the Moscow branch of the CPRF, Valeriy Rashkin, the chairman of the council of the regional branch of A Just Russia party, Aleksandr Ageyev, the coordinator of the Moscow branch of the LDPR, Vladimir Sobolev, the first deputy head of the Moscow branch of the Yabloko party, Galina Mikhaleva, and the head of the Moscow branch of the Patriots of Russia party, Sergey Glotov.
(Passage omitted: Rashkin's comments on the document)