Twelve witnesses questioned at trial on cancellation of election of Astrakhan Mayor

Today, the Kirov District Court of Astrakhan, where the claim of Oleg Shein, a former candidate for the Mayor of the city on cancellation of March 4 election, is considered, two claimants' witnesses were interviewed, who were members of the territorial election commission (TEC) of the Kirov District. Also, ten respondent's and interested persons' witnesses were also interrogated – they were chairpersons of election commissions.

Prior to file a lawsuit, Oleg Shein's team had stated that they were expecting approval of violations from at least 120 out of 202 polling stations.

The Kirov District Court of Astrakhan has conducted initial talks with the parties to Oleg Shein's lawsuit on abolition of the election results back on April 20. In the course of the talks, the court decided to attract all four TECs of the city and members of the Regional CEC (Central Election Commission) as witnesses.

Today, the court has listened to claimants' witnesses Sergey Kozhanov and Svetlana Chistyakova, who were members of the TEC of the Kirov District. Also, the chairs of the Precinct Election Commissions (PECs) Nos. 382, 392, 394, 395, 398, 398, 400, 402, 419 and 431 were questioned as the defendant's and interested parties' witnesses.

According to Oleg Shein's blog in the Livejournal, the chairs of PECs often say in their testimonies that they do not remember the events, but they asserted that everything was under the law. Thus, according to evidences of Suyundukov, a chief specialist of the Kirov District Administration of Astrakhan from PEC No. 392, he did not threaten to evict any of the observers, that the unused ballot papers had been cancelled prior to counting of votes in due order; the ballot papers for the election of the mayor and Russian president were counted at one table; and he read out the protocols to the video camera.