"Edinaya Rossiya" states attempt of ballot stuffing at primaries in Astrakhan

On May 22, in the Astrakhan Region, the primaries (intra-party voting) of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party were held in 115 polling stations. According to organizers, 7.79% of the total number of voters took part in the vote.

In the course of the primaries, 30 reports were received about various violations, including voters' bribing and prohibited agitation. At one of the stations, they found 741 ballot papers "of unidentified type," said Valeria Mukhina, the press secretary of the regional branch of the "United Russia" Party.

According to her story, the above ballots had two signatures, which did not match those of any of the members of the commission, but they had ticks for one of the candidates.

Ms Mukhina has noted that this fact was detected 15 minutes after the opening of the polling station; and the suspicious ballots were confiscated and sealed up. "We can state with absolute certainty that none of such bulletins got into the ballot box; thus, this violation did not affect the outcomes of the vote. As of today, the fact is still being investigated," Valeria Mukhina has added.

According to her story, basically, on the voting day, candidates fixed voters' bribing and facts of agitation, which was prohibited. "During the voting day, the regional executive committee received 30 reports about the violations fixed in five polling stations of the region. The candidates mainly fixed facts of buying votes and campaigning, which is banned on the voting day. All the facts were checked, but not all violations were confirmed," said Valeria Mukhina.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.