Prosecutor’s report reveals thousands of election violations

Almost 100 people have been charged with civil offences linked to violations of the December 4 parliamentary election, according to a preliminary report submitted to the president by the prosecutor general.

Overall, the report revealed around 3,000 violations of election legislation.Over the period of the election campaign and the poll, more than 2,000 complaints were filed. They included notifications of alleged election fraud such as frame-up of ballot papers, absentee voting certificates and violations of voters’ rights. In several regions, the prosecutor’s investigation uncovered violations in the formation of election commissions. For example, in the Pskov and Nenetsk regions, their members were directly subordinate to the registered candidates. In the Krasnoyarsk region, members of one election commission signed non-filled forms supposed to report the outcome of the poll. In addition, in a number of cases, rules for compiling voting lists were not observed. Apart from bringing charges for civil offences, prosecutors have launched two criminal cases over attempted bribery of voters and illegal production of absentee voting certificates