Stavropol Territory: association "Golos" claims election falsifications

The Stavropol Regional Branch of the association "Golos" (Vote) does not recognize the results of the presidential election because of numerous violations identified in the region. The Regional Election Commission denies the allegations.

At many electoral precincts, observers faced resistance of chairpersons, in particular, the observers were not allowed to make photo- and video records, and they were threatened to be removed. This was reported by Alla Lipchanskaya, the head of the Stavropol Regional Branch of the association of non-commercial organizations to protect the voters' rights "Golos", at the press conference held on March 5.

The observers from the "Golos", who worked at the electoral precincts as correspondents of the newspaper "Grazhdansky Golos" (Civic Vote), were combined into 20 mobile teams, which managed to cover 120 out of 139 election commissions in the city.

According to Alla Lipchanskaya, the most common method, identified during the monitoring in Stavropol, was manipulation with portable ballot boxes. Alla Lipchanskaya attributes that to the fact that falsifications at the very electoral precincts were hindered due to presence of web cameras, stationary transparent ballot boxes and large number of systems for automatic processing of ballots.

The most obvious trend was a sharp increase in voting at home: at some electoral precincts, the number of voters reached more than 800 precincts. At the December elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, in the Stavropol Territory, on average, about 7 percent of the voters voted at home; at present, according to the sample survey held by the "Golos", more than 30 percent of the voters voted at home.

The observers from the headquarters of Mikhail Prokhorov, the Regional Branch of the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) and the Regional Branch of the "Golos", who attended the press conference, reported on the specific facts of pressure on them by the chairpersons of election commissions in Stavropol. On those facts, the complaints were filed to the Territorial Election Commission (TEC).

Besides, on March 5, Stavropol hosted the press conference of Evgeny Demyanov, Chairman of the Election Commission of the Stavropol Territory, who rejected accusations of falsification at the election.

Evgeny Demyanov has stated that he treats the election as "completely fair and legitimate." He has recalled that on the eve of the voting, the Stavropol Territory was visited by members of the long-term observation mission from the CIS, who also praised the course of preparations for the election.