The Great Unbundling

Thousands of residents of cities and districts of the Pskov region were inflamed with a desire to vote on March 11 for a single list of candidates for deputies in the Pechora and Palkinsky districts

In accordance with the new edition of the Electoral Code of the Pskov Region, a party participating in the elections to the Pskov Regional Assembly is obliged to distribute the candidates included in the single list into 22 regional groups. When distributing deputy mandates, the leaders of the list included in its general regional part go first to the Assembly. As for the candidates from regional groups, the greatest chances to get into the Assembly will be those of them in whose constituencies the party will score the highest (in relative, that is, in percentage terms) result.

This amendment to the Electoral Code of the region, submitted for consideration by deputy Vladimir Yanikov, “came into being” from the depths of the United Russia deputy group. But the United Russia party did not hide the fact that they were "lowered from above" from the federal leadership of the party.

This norm, without a doubt, equalizes the chances of party members, creates conditions for competition between them and is generally more fair than the “linear” distribution of mandates, when members of a single list receive seats in the Assembly exclusively “on a first-come, first-served basis”. However, at the same time, even at the stage of discussing amendments to the Electoral Code, there were concerns, including from the lips of V. Yanikov himself, that its application could lead to “unnecessary use of administrative resources”, since regional groups will compete not so much with competitors, how many among themselves, by hook or by crook trying to get the maximum result in the final intra-party rating in order to “break through”.

It looks like this prediction is coming true.

According to PG sources, in the 11th constituency (Pechorsky and Palkinsky districts) and - most importantly - outside it, the leadership of the regional branch of one of the political parties is already "forging" its victory with might and main. To this end, ordinary employees of enterprises associated with the leader of the regional group were administratively obliged to obtain absentee certificates in the districts to which they are assigned at their place of permanent residence - and in the city of Pskov (mostly), and even in the districts of the region. Payment for "travel" on Election Day will be made in cash. Moreover, campaigning for absentee certificates among relatives and friends is also encouraged. Payment for the same tax - 500 rubles for one piece of a person brought into "operation". For those who can assemble a "detachment", "special conditions" are established.

Received absentee ballots are photocopied, name lists are compiled on their basis, the schedule and routes of dozens of buses are being developed, which on the voting day, March 11, will deliver the absentees to polling stations located on the territory of the district. Scattering them around the polling stations, the organizers of the stuffing of "left" voters are guided even by the composition of specific precinct election commissions and the personalities of observers.

As of the evening of February 26, the number of absentee ballots issued in Pskov alone at many polling stations (there are 90 in total) was already in the tens.

According to the Electoral Code of the Pskov Region, “Absentee ballots are used in the elections of deputies of the regional Assembly ... The form of an absentee ballot should provide for the possibility of entering into it the last name, first name, patronymic of the voter, the number of the constituency and the number of the polling station where the voter is included in the lists of voters at the place of residence ... A voter who will not be able to arrive on voting day at the polling station of the polling station where he is included in the list of voters has the right to receive an absentee certificate from the relevant precinct election commission 24 or less days before voting day and take part in voting in within the electoral district where this voter has an active suffrage, at the polling station where he will be on voting day ... The precinct election commission, on the basis of a written application of the voter indicating the reason why he needs an absentee certificate, issues an absentee certificate to the voter personally or to his representative on the basis of a notarized power of attorney... The voter or his representative shall sign in the list of voters upon receipt of an absentee certificate, indicating the series and number of his passport or a document replacing it. At the same time, this voter is excluded from the list of voters of the corresponding precinct in these elections and is not taken into account when counting the number of registered voters when drawing up the protocol of the precinct election commission... constituency in which he has an active suffrage, while his absentee ballot is confiscated. A voter, receiving a ballot paper (ballot papers) on the basis of an absentee certificate, shall additionally indicate the address of his/her place of residence in the list of voters.

Thus, if one wants to establish a complete list of persons who have “detached” from a permanent place of voting and their place of work, it is not an overly complicated task. In addition, leaving people outside the constituency deprives them of the right to vote for a candidate nominated in a single-mandate constituency and allows them to express their “will” only by “party ballot”. According to the Lomonosov-Lavoisier law, known since school days, “all changes in Nature that occur are such a state that how much is taken from one body, so much will be added to another. So, if some matter decreases somewhere, it will multiply in another place ... ". Correspondingly, where citizens are “detaching” from, the number of voters for both parties and candidates in single-mandate constituencies is reduced.

Nothing is left to chance. Understanding that people, not burning with warm feelings for the organizers of the scam, can still vote as they want, the interested persons ruled out any possibility of independent expression of will. At the precinct, the “rejected” will have to receive a ballot paper, but will be obliged not to use it for its legal purpose, but to take it outside the premises of the precinct commission in order to hand it over to the senior group, who then “correctly” fills it out and passes it on to the next “removed” in order to he lowered it into the urn, and brought out a new "draft". It's called a carousel.

The total number of voters in the 11th constituency at the time of calling the elections is, according to the regional election commission, 26,686 people. Judging by the scale of the planned “electoral intervention”, the number of voters who voted in the regional elections in this district will increase by thousands of people. There is no doubt that if the plan is fully implemented, the percentage of votes for this party in this territory relative to other constituencies may be high enough for the leader of the regional list of this party to claim the mandate of a deputy of the regional Assembly.

The editorial office learned that scandals had already occurred during the issuance of absentee ballots at precinct election commissions in Pskov: commission members, as prescribed by law, demanded that the reasons for which a citizen is not able to vote in his district be indicated in the application. The “absentees” were at a loss for answers, they were rude, while many commissions also lacked absentee certificates: such an “epidemic” had never been observed in the Pskov region before.

It is hard to imagine that such a large number of voters rushed to, for example, the Holy Dormition Pskov-Caves Monastery on the election day. And what they found attractive in the Palkinsky district is impossible even to imagine.

It is also difficult to imagine what legal forms such an "invasion" can be countered with, other than a "full and comprehensive investigation."

In this regard, it is worth recalling that, according to Article 141 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights or the work of electoral commissions”), obstruction of the free exercise by a citizen of his electoral rights, combined with bribery, deceit, coercion, the use of violence or the threat of it applications; committed by a person using his official position; committed by a group of persons by prior agreement or by an organized group, shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to 200 thousand roubles, or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of up to 18 months, or by corrective labor for a term of one to two years, or by arrest for a term of up to six months or imprisonment for up to five years.

Maxim Kiselev.

From the editor. "Pskov province" sends this publication to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the prosecutor's office of the Pskov region, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the election commission of the Pskov region. The editors will notify readers about the reaction of all these state bodies.