Translated material
Why become a member of the weekend
I'm going to take her place. Not in ZhEK, but in WIK - also the abbreviation from the Soviet dictionary. I intend to sit this aunt. I want to make sure when you come to vote in the elections of the Moscow City Duma or mayor of the city next year, people who could be your acquaintances gave you ballots. After all, from December 4, 2011, from the date of election to the State Duma, we do not trust not only these professionally rude women, but also teachers of the schools in which we studied. We do not actually trust anyone who must first hold it on the day of voting, and then count the voices, first in Wick, then in Tik - and so on before the Central Election Commission.
In fact, trust is the most important component of democracy. We all agreed, distributed the roles and basically believe that people who occupied responsible positions comply with the law and conditions of our contract. If we stop trusting someone, we change it to a more suitable one. But in our society, all these mechanisms are violated, and there is no trust in each other. And here is the action that all public human rights organizations now hold, one way or another related to the elections in Russia, it seems to me just the most important step towards the restoration of this trust. What exactly is happening? Next year, starting right from January, precinct election commissions will begin to take massively throughout the country for the next five years. That is, these are commissions that will hold votes in the governor’s elections, in the elections to the legislative assemblies of all major cities and in the next elections of the State Duma and the President, even if the latter are not early.
In fact, absolutely every citizen of the Russian Federation could always enter these commissions-and now it can. The fact is that they must be representatives of all parties who went to the local legislative assembly. That is, for example, in St. Petersburg there should be even representatives from Yabloko. It turned out that, having received a direction from any of the parties, you can become a member of the precinct election commission with a ruling vote. Agreements with parties, as well as the search for volunteers who want to take a place in the commission, are now engaged in the “citizen of the observer”, “Rosbur”, “Voice”, the recently formed “Sonar” - all we know, at least for the December and March election. They are now conducting training and seminars, just as it was when the mass movement of observers arose.
I remember observers in the March elections - I myself was in the territorial election commission of the Basmanny district of Moscow, so in one day I managed to see how the vote took place in several dozen sites. Independent observers, remembering monstrous violations in December, went to war with evil. Members of the election commissions were preparing in advance for the removal of the enemy. They believed that they would be accused of all possible sins in any case. And they thought only about one thing: how to minimize the participation of annoying observers in the process. In the first half of the day, the atmosphere “before the battle” reigned in all areas: oppressive silence, standing and sitting observers who do not take his eyes off the URN and voter accounting books. They look at them with a wolf because of their desktop members of the commission. Observers strictly demanded to observe not only the spirit, but also the letter of the law. Members of the commissions, who have long been accustomed to a system of work, not always sharpened for strict implementation of all the requirements, perceived every remark as a personal insult.
But stuffing, fakes of ballots in the presidential election in Moscow did not occur. Thousands of observers, remembering the experience of December 4, were preparing to prevent mass disturbances. But the authorities treated the elections in Moscow differently. Yes, in Moscow there were "carousels" on the day of voting. But additional lists were much more effective, on which military units and dormitories voted, absenteeism in enterprises - for all this there is a loophole in law. In St. Petersburg and several more cities, they simply organized new sites and, without even opening them on the voting day, received protocols with thousands of the necessary votes. And of course, it is important to remember that the election is not only a voting day. A television broadcast unevenly distributed between candidates, canceled at the last moment of a meeting with voters (all candidates except the Prime Minister)-it could not be affected by all this, observing in polling stations. We, striving for honest elections, were beaten differently. In the Basmann Tik, the counting of votes had not yet begun, and Putin was already crying on Red Square, no one had doubts about his victory. But observers still fulfilled their duty. They watched the ballots at each of the sites are considered. And the counting in our tick was honest. By the end of the day, or rather, by the middle of the night, people were pleased with each other to come to us. Observers wrote gratitude for compliance with the law, the chairmen of the commissions took phones from them to work together again.
Because suddenly it turned out that to do something honestly much more pleasant to everyone. Including members of commissions, who, without pressure from above, without ordering, did not at all seek to arrange taps. Fraud this time was performed with other hands. And from the elections themselves there was a feeling of deception. But at the same time, an amazing discovery was made: per day spent together, you can learn to trust each other if you do not have figs in your pocket.
But then “we” were observers, and “they” were commissions. Now human rights activists offer to change the alignment and not to catch violators of the law, but to take a direct responsibility for its observance on the voting day. Now “us” is offered to become “them”. And protect the law, being in a more advantageous position. It is very difficult to remove the member of the election commission from the site, he signs the voting protocol, the member of the commission has all the rights and brings all responsibility according to the “Elections Law” - all those rights and obligations that we taught by heart, preparing to be observers.
Now in Russia a single election day has been introduced - Sunday in mid -September. In fact, everything that needs to be sacrificed is one weekend a year. Well, a few more meetings and duty on the eve of the election - this is true a little. On October 14, 2012, there was already a single voting day (it was postponed to September later), there were many important elections throughout the country - governor, municipal. United Russia won almost everywhere, because there was a catastrophically low turnout. Local administrations did everything so that the elections would go unnoticed. This is now one of the main ways of deception. They try to make people in all ways to make it clear that nothing depends on their voting, and it is precisely what needs to be opposed.
Money is paid for work in the commission during the election period, as well as for this time, each member of the commission has a partial immunity: it is more difficult to make a criminal case or file an application with the prosecutor's office. We all forgot that work in the PEC is public. Those very teachers and aunts from ZhEK fulfill it, thinking not about criminal liability for violations of the law - abstract, no one has ever been in court - but only about the boss is not dissatisfied, no matter how they fired. And there were simply no other applicants for the commission until recently.
And now there are much fewer applicants than necessary. In Moscow, 3600 polling stations and a maximum of 2500 applicants for places in the PEC, judging by posts in thematic groups on social networks, as well as by records of those who directly apply to human rights organizations. That is, it is not even enough to distribute activists one at a time in the commission. At the same time, it must be understood that in Moscow the situation is much better than in the regions. It all depends solely on the activity of the local branches of the Voice, Observer and others, and there is no self -organization at all - and the lack of volunteers is catastrophic. And in total there are about 100,000 polling stations in the country. So it does not look like the next September you will all come to sites where you will meet friends on the other side of the table. There is still time, of course. In Moscow, the “appeal” of activists continues until mid -January, in other regions of the PEC will form until spring.
By the end of 2012, the border between the state and the active part of the population was drawn clearly and unequivocally: inhuman laws, lawless courts, unwindless detentions and prohibitions. And the other end of this year will be remembered by an absolute sense of helplessness and powerless anger. However, it all started with the fact that we screamed loudly: "We stole the elections." And I found myself the only way to fight this total helplessness - I will try to regain the elections. Well, just imagine: you come to the site to vote and just for sure - just by faces, about answering questions - you understand that no one will steal your voice. Because here are their own, here they are going to observe the law. Trust is how important it is.