Forced Election Examination and United Russia campaigning at a children's clinic: election news from NeMoskva
With only ten days left until the start of the "unified" three-day voting period, we've compiled news from various regions about preparations for the State Duma elections.
Removal of Yabloko candidates and detentions in the regions
After the Supreme Court disqualified the Yabloko party from the elections, its individual candidates began to be disqualified en masse in the regions. Today, the court disqualified the leader of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko party for "copyright infringement": he posted a video filmed against the backdrop of Banksy's graffiti "Girl with a Balloon" and a portrait of Academician Andrei Sakharov, and also quoted Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko: "Better 10 years of negotiations than one day of war." And yesterday, six Yabloko candidates were detained in the Sverdlovsk region.
Control over the DEG and coercion of public sector employees
In the Novosibirsk region, the "control group" for the DEG included only government officials: members of the city and regional election commissions and observers from United Russia. Not a single representative of the "systemic opposition" was included.
Chuvashia has become the leader in Russia in the number of applications for remote electronic voting (REV): 15% of voters (approximately 140 people) have already registered on the portal. According to the head of the republic, Oleg Nikolaev, this is the highest figure among the more than 30 regions using REV. Residents report a "voluntary-compulsory" registration process.
Public sector employees in the Altai Krai region are being forced to register with the District Electoral Commission under threat of losing their bonuses and facing "problems at work." Residents of Zmeinogorsk and the village of Pospelikha reported this at a meeting with Communist Party deputies. Eleven percent of voters are registered with the District Electoral Commission—less than in Chuvashia, but more in absolute numbers—187,000.
Remote electronic voting, according to independent IT experts, is an ideal tool for administrative manipulation and falsification (DEG) due to the impossibility of independent control over the vote count.
Campaigning in medical institutions
In Kaliningrad, United Russia campaign leaflets were posted directly on the "Specialist Schedule" board at a children's clinic. When a resident, Tatyana Batyrshina, inquired about the rationale behind this, she was accused of being "against the government." She wrote on her VKontakte page:
If someone wants to post campaign materials here, there should be a separate stand with the same conditions for all parties. And at a children's medical facility, I would prefer to see an up-to-date and complete schedule for all specialists, not these individuals. Therefore, the complaint has been sent to the electoral commission.
