Oleg Shein, ex-candidate for Mayor of Astrakhan intends to continue his personal hunger strike

At a briefing in Moscow, Oleg Shein told reporters that he would continue his personal hunger strike, despite the fact that he began - jointly with the Central Election Commission )CEC) - watching the video materials from polling stations during the election of the Mayor of Astrakhan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Oleg Shein arrived in Moscow on April 16, and on the same evening began reviewing - together with Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Russian CEC, - the video records from Astrakhan polling stations. The procedure lasted for about 10 hours and ended on April 17 at 6 a.m. At night, while watching the videos at the CEC, Oleg Shein felt bad; and doctors made him an injection of glucose.

At the urging of Vladimir Churov, Shein was examined by doctors, who recommend the two-month-long hunger-striker to go to hospital; however, Shein refused in writing.

Oleg Shein's personal hunger strike will go on; on April 17, he returned to Astrakhan. "My personal hunger strike goes on; however, I urge those who hold hunger strike with me, to get out of the action, so as not to harm their health," said Oleg Shein.

Shein: in about 20 out of 42 reviewed records marks in ballot papers were not shown at all

According to the ex-candidate for the Mayor of Astrakhan, the night spent at the CEC was unprecedented.

"Vladimir Churov was watching - together with Sergey Mironov and me - the video records from the Astrakhan polling stations till six in the morning. We watched records from 42 polling stations. At about 20 of them, the marks made by voters in ballot papers were not shown at all," said Oleg Shein.

According to his story, the video materials have fixed a case, when a policeman put a truncheon on a pile of ballot papers during the election of the Mayor of the city of Astrakhan in order not to let an observer - a member of the election commission with an advisory vote - to demand recalculation of votes. Also the videos have fixed, as Mr Shein noted, many cases, when only chairpersons of election commissions counted ballot papers - "they bent corners of ballots, even without seeing in full for whom the voters had cast them." The ex-candidate has promised that all the videos without exception will be posted on the Youtube.

"Churov made notes and reacted to a number of situations, especially those, where members of the commissions with decisive vote and observers were driven out of the rooms. On some occasions Churov demanded to unwind the record back," said Oleg Shein. "For technical reasons we couldn't show a number of episodes, but the watching will continue. Today, at eight in the evening a special working group will be formed and engaged in watching".

He added that Vladimir Churov would draw up a memorandum for those who had formed the Astrakhan CEC in order to deal with what happened there.

Ex-candidate for Mayor is sure to win lawsuit on cancellation of outcomes of Astrakhan election

On April 20, an interview will take place on the lawsuit filed by Oleg Shein on cancellation of the outcomes of the election of the Mayor of Astrakhan, held on March 4, 2012. The lawsuit claims violations at 173 polling stations.

The ex-candidate for Mayor of Astrakhan is sincerely bewildered why the judge has made such a long break between submission of the claim and the interview. According to Oleg Shein, "these symptoms indicate a certain kind of wrong approach" - a more leisurely one than you might have expected.

Despite all this, Oleg Shein is convinced that he will win the lawsuit on cancellation of the election outcomes; and he will not have to address the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

"I want to note the yesterday's speech of Ms Matvienko, who said that the situation in Astrakhan should be supervised by Vladimir Putin," said Oleg Shein. "This was stated not by Mironov, not by the 'Spravedlivaya Rossiya' Party, but by the Speaker of the Council of Federation, who is representing the party in power. This suggests that there are people in the federal centre, who stick to a normal position."