CEC Chairman sees no falsification in videos from polling stations in Astrakhan

Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC), said that, when watching videos from polling stations in Astrakhan, he saw no falsification; however, he found out violations of procedural nature.

At present, video records from 70 polling stations have been viewed. "Video that I watched at night from Monday to Tuesday recorded not a single fact of falsification of ballots, shifting from one pack to another, trying to put something in a transparent box in advance, and so on, that did not take place," said Vladimir Churov in his interview to the "Russia 24" TV Channel.

However, Vladimir Churov acknowledged that inspection of video records from webcams that were installed at polling stations in Astrakhan revealed "real violations of procedures for working with documents after the polling stations were closed." The head of the CEC has promised to evaluate the actions of the head of the election committee of Astrakhan.

Vladimir Churov mentioned late cancellation of unused ballots as the most serious violation. However, according to him, it cannot affect the outcome of the vote.

In his turn, Sergey Mironov, the leader of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) Party, said that, when viewing together with Vladimir Churov video records, he noticed "gross violations of the law" at 20 out of 42 polling stations, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The Chairman of the CEC has promised to publish on the CEC's website the final report of investigation into the violations committed at the election of Mayor of Astrakhan. According to him, the report on the election in Astrakhan may be published on April 20. At the same time, Vladimir Churov did not rule out that further viewing could identify other violations, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Besides, the Chairman of the CEC of Russia believes that hunger strike, started by Oleg Shein, the representative of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" Party, defeated at the election of the Mayor of Astrakhan, has no aim. "All of the procedures that are carried out at present, would take place regardless the fact whether the hunger strike was declared or not, and therefore I treat the very hunger strike as absolutely unreasonable," said Vladimir Churov.