Valery Suchkov: Sochi defines plan for obtaining absentee ballots

On the eve of the election of the president of the Russian Federation, the district administrations of Sochi send to sanatorium-and-spa institutions the document entitled "Schedule for obtaining absentee ballots of staff members of sanatorium-and-spa institutions at territorial election commission". This was reported by Valery Suchkov, the organizer of the "Sochi centre for election public control".

According to Valery Suchkov, the centre got "a distribution list" from the district administration of the Khosta District of Sochi with respect to the presidential election campaign. The document "Schedule for obtaining absentee ballots of staff members of sanatorium-and-spa institutions at territorial election commission (the Khosta District Administration) from January 20, 2012, till February 11, 2012", signed by Yu. V. Chesnokov, Chief of Division for Recreation and Tourism, on a sheet of A4 paper, which was sent from the fax machine of the Khosta District Administration on January 20 at 3:47 p.m. Moscow time.

The ordinal list contains 21 institutions, including the Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) "Sputnik", the Joint-Stock Company (JSC) "Sanatorium 'Zelyonaya Roscha' (Green Grove)", the vacation house "Aquamarine", the sanatorium "Khosta", the Limited Liability Company (LLC) Balneotherapeutic Health Resort "Matsesta", and others. The columns "quantity (plan)" and "total daily plan" contain figures from 10 to 30.

"The number of absentee ballots, which staff members of this sphere are to receive daily, is not less than 280 units per day for 21 days before the period of receipt of absentee ballots at local election commissions of Sochi. This is just one proof of such a "volume" in one of the four district of the city (the Khosta District) and in one sphere. And we have information that such activities cover spheres of education, medicine, police, administrations themselves. That is, all budget spheres of the city," Valery Suchkov says.

According to him, the Khosta District Administration requires voters employed in the spa industry of the district, to obtain 5880 absentee ballots, that is, 10 percent. "And these figures are only for the district election commissions. In this district, at elections to the State Duma held in December 2011, 55,295 voters were recorded," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Valery Suchkov. He has stressed that "the electoral legislation forbids even the campaigning, unpaid from the electoral fund of a candidate, and the campaigning also includes appeals to take part in the voting."

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has addressed Yuri Chesnokov, Chief of Division for Recreation and Tourism of the Khosta District, for a comment. He has explained that the schedule was circulated to "assist in informing the leaders of those institutions about the possibility for their employees to get their absentee ballots in case of necessity, since March used to be time for vacations or duties." "The schedule is for informational purposes only," Yuri Chesnokov assured. He has added that it is not connected to any attempts to create conditions for falsifications at the election.