CEC admits violations but denies falsifications at Astrakhan elections

Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), has reported that 60 percent of electoral precincts committed violations at the election of Mayor of Astrakhan. However, according to the CEC Chairman, all violations were of procedural nature and they did not affect the outcome. Oleg Shein, ex-candidate for the position of Mayor of the city saw, treated the statement made by Vladimir Churov as "a positive development."

Having viewed the video records from electoral precincts in Astrakhan, Vladimir Churov, CEC Chairman, spoke at the press conference on summarizing the video viewing. He has reported that he noticed not a single case of falsification; however, he had registered a number of violations, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

"We have revealed not a single fact of falsifications and ballot box stuffing. Actually, the complainants themselves speak not of falsifications, but of violations in procedure of vote counting and of violations in installation of web cameras," said Vladimir Churov.

Summarizing the result of viewing all the video records, Vladimir Churov has noted the following violations: simultaneous sorting of ballots at the election of President and the election of Mayor, incorrect installation of web cameras, "simultaneous actions: redemption, counting of ballots and work with lists of voters", removal of observers, including the use of "soft forces", the "Kommersant" reports.

In a number of cases, the CEC Chairman has admitted the following violation: video record showed how several observers were separated from the table, where ballot counting took place, by a bench and a dense row of backs of the members of the election commission.

"The observers were forced to make awkward postures to see something behind the backs... This is a bad case," the "Gazeta.ru" quotes the CEC Chairman as saying.

"According to preliminary results of the inspection, 74 electoral precincts have no remarks," summed up the CEC Chairman. In total, Astrakhan had 202 electoral precincts.

The CEC Chairman has emphasized that at present the CEC avoids to comment on the possible cancellation of the election outcome, since it does not want to influence the court in any way.

"Since the question on the election in Astrakhan has been brought to the court, we will only comment on the organizational and methodological issues. This is our concrete position," the "Interfax" quotes Vladimir Churov as saying.

Oleg Shein, ex-candidate for the position of Mayor of the city, treated the statements of the CEC Chairman as positive developments that "adjusted a bad shift."

"Churov has admitted that the violations were committed at 128 electoral precincts out of 203. Let us remind you that earlier, we spoke of 120 electoral precincts... We should attach no importance to the fact that Churov denies the existence of falsifications and speaks namely of violations of the vote counting procedures. The word 'falsification' (falsifico) means 'forgery'. Therefore, this is re-writing of protocols, when initially they were honestly counted and then remade in TECs (territorial election commissions). In Astrakhan, almost nothing was re-written. At our place, they just did not show mark on ballots. This made possible to draw any results; and no protocols were to be signed," wrote Oleg Shein in his blog.