The Central Election Commission sees no problems

Alexander Veshnyakov believes that St. Petersburg is ready for elections

Chairman of the Central Election Commission Alexander Veshnyakov completed yesterday a two-day inspection trip to St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, where he checked readiness for the gubernatorial elections of these two subjects scheduled for September 21. Summing up the results of his inspection, Mr. Veshnyakov made a sensational confession to journalists. According to the head of the Central Election Commission, President Vladimir Putin has officially agreed to use his name and photograph for election campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Valentina Matvienko. The fact is that on numerous posters with slogans like “Together we can do anything!”, hung along the streets of St. Petersburg, the plenipotentiary poses with the president. The vigilant Mr. Veshnyakov demanded an explanation from the city election commission on this matter. It was then that it turned out that the advertisement was paid for from the election fund, and the president sent his written consent to the use of his image.

So, according to the chairman of the Central Election Commission, “there is no violation of the law,” and the presidential campaign does not violate the freedom of expression of citizens, since “it is impossible to put pressure on St. Petersburg residents living in a free democratic city!”

Let us remind you that Anna Markova’s lawyers are of a completely opposite opinion. True, so far they have not filed lawsuits demanding that Valentina Matvienko be removed from the race on the basis of these posters, since the deregistration of candidates stops five days before the elections. But if the election battle does not end on September 21 and a second round is announced, then new lawsuits against Ms. Matvienko are quite possible. Let us recall that Anna Markova’s team has already sought the removal of Valentina Matvienko because of a story shown on television, where Putin wishes his plenipotentiary success in the elections. The St. Petersburg City Court refused to satisfy the vice-governor's claim, and Markova's lawyers appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. However, the head of the Central Election Commission is not afraid of legal squabbles between contenders for Smolny. He believes that “there are no legal or organizational obstacles to voting, both in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region there really is a real choice, and there will be serious public control over the course and results of the expression of will.”

As it turned out, Alexander Veshnyakov was not alarmed by the fact that the St. Petersburg City Court declared illegal the actions of the City Electoral Commission, which sent Anna Markova’s signatures for verification to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. Mr. Veshnyakov hinted that it would be a good idea for the servants of Themis to re-read the laws, and stated “for the information of the judges of the city of St. Petersburg” that in the federal election legislation “the Central Election Commission is allowed to use law enforcement officers in this capacity.” “And we will do it,” he added. However, the chief elector said, the assessments made by employees of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the authenticity of the signatures “have no legal force, and the decision whether to recognize them or not is made by the CEC working group and the CEC itself.” By the way, in St. Petersburg this is exactly what happened: first, the police found 28% of Markova’s signatures were defective, which exceeds the permissible limit by 3%, and then the city electoral commission did not agree with this figure and registered the vice-governor as a candidate for mayor. However, Mr. Veshnyakov found “excesses on the part of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate,” whose employees, according to his information, prohibited agitators from working on the streets. The head of the Central Election Commission called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to uncover an underground printing house that printed about 1.5 million copies of false propaganda allegedly on behalf of Matvienko, which discredited this candidate. And miraculously, yesterday the investigative department of the Moskovsky district police department of St. Petersburg brought charges in a criminal case of libel against Alexander Ravinsky, the general director of the printing house of Diamant LLC, where duplicate newspapers were printed. The Central Internal Affairs Directorate believes that several more defendants will be charged in this case.

In the Leningrad region, according to Mr. Veshnyakov, there were also “dirty technologies” - this is how the head of the Central Election Commission described “the so-called primaries held by some group “Surgut Alternative”. The harsh verdict of the main elector “pre-voting” deserved because the fact that his ballot did not include the name of ex-governor Vadim Gustov, the main rival of the current head of the region Valery Serdyukov.

Mr. Veshnyakov called on the regional election commission to “assess the black PR and involve law enforcement agencies in its suppression.”

Vasily TITOV