Most violations at elections to State Duma detected in Moscow and Stavropol Territory, report of MIA and ICRF asserts

In the course of the election campaign on elections of deputies to the Russian State Duma, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has identified more than two thousand violations, including 96 ones in the Stavropol Territory. Investigators conduct nine inspections in different regions of the country, including in the south of Russia, to investigate the complaints about falsification of voting results. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the voting results at 21 electoral precincts were cancelled due to violations.

MIA and ICRF present information on violations at election to Dmitry Medvedev

Today, the Russian MIA and the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) presented to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev interim report on the violations identified in the framework of their competence during election campaign and voting at the elections to the State Duma conducted on December 4, 2011.

According to the Russian MIA, during the election campaign, law enforcement agents completed 2091 administrative protocol. The greatest numbers of violations were registered in Moscow (462), the Stavropol Territory (96), Samara (88), Sverdlovsk (80), and Novosibirsk (64) Regions.

The most often registered violations were: making and using of campaign materials in violation of the law (1153), violations of the established order of mass events (511), agitation campaign conducted by persons, who had no right to that (114), intentional destruction or damage of printed materials (91), pre-election agitation campaign in places prohibited by the law (88).

Since the beginning of agitation campaign period, 53 criminal cases were initiated in 27 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. At present, persons, who committed crimes in 10 criminal cases, were identified. In 5 cases, cases were terminated, suspended or denied in their initiation.

The ICRF received 259 messages containing arguments about crimes committed during the election campaign, and inspections are to be conducted to investigate all the messages. According to the ICRF, the largest number of messages was sent by citizens and members of election commissions. Among the parties, the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) and the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) are the most active ones.

Nine inspections are being conducted to investigate the complaints about falsifications of the voting results: in Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, and Novosibirsk Regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, the Stavropol Territory, in the republics of Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, and North Ossetia-Alania.

Four inspections are being held on the facts of bribing of voters; five inspections on the complaints about ballot box stuffing on the election day; besides, information on cases of voting for other persons, evidence of coercion to vote for any party, sale of absentee ballots.

The President instructed the law enforcement agencies to report on the results of ongoing investigations, the statement on the website of the Kremlin reports.

Leonid Ivlev: voting results at 21 electoral precincts cancelled

After the parliamentary elections, the Russian CEC has received almost 1700 complaints and appeals, voting results at 21 electoral precincts were cancelled. This was reported by Leonid Ivlev, Deputy Chairman of the CEC at the hearing "Observer at elections: legal framework and civil responsibility" held on December 20 in the Public Chamber of Russia.

"As of today, the CEC received 1686 appeals and complaints. Out of them, 124 appeals were not considered, since 41 of them were sent to the General Prosecutor's Office, 63 to the MIA, and 20 to the ICRF," said Leonid Ivlev.

According to him, after the voting, blogs and social networks published many messages with videos of violations committed at the elections; however, at present, most complaints are not proved. "We have watched 26 videos on the YouTube, and only one video revealed a violation, but an attempt of ballot box stuffing had been noticed seen and prevented. More than half of the videos contain intra- and interframe editing," said Leonid Ivlev.

He has also stated that the voting results at 21 electoral precincts, where, in total, 39,000 persons voted, were cancelled because of violations. Deputy Chairman of the CEC assured that persons, who were responsible for the electoral process at those electoral precincts, would no longer work in the electoral system, the "RIA Novosti" reports.