"The Central Election Commission took a cunning step"

On January 22, 4 days before the deadline for submitting lists of candidates to precinct election commissions in Moscow, the Central Election Commission published on its website a resolution dated January 16 “On amending the recommendations on the procedure for forming PECs (precinct election commissions - editor’s note).” According to the resolution, the procedure for filling out the education column in the candidate’s application form is changed. Unlike the old document (these were distributed to all parties in December 2012), the new one must also indicate the specialty and qualifications. This resolution will make it possible to reject any of the candidates for PECs due to formal non-compliance with the changed rules, independent observers believe.

Representatives of the association "Golos", "RosVyborov" and SONAR - organizations coordinating the work of volunteers in elections - told PublicPost that the CEC resolution, according to which all the documents collected by volunteers can be rejected, is illegal. The CEC refers to the Law “On Education”, which comes into force only in the summer. In addition, the resolution was not published in the journal "Bulletin of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation" - it was only posted retroactively on the department's website.

Roman Udot, coordinator of election observation projects, Golos Association:

“This is a provocation, and we were waiting for it. They were really afraid that a large number of honest and independent people would come to work in the PECs. According to our data, in some districts of Moscow, parliamentary parties formed lists 100% of independent volunteers, and not members of their parties. Naturally, this situation frightens the CEC. By this time, we had gathered about 5 thousand people. If they are turned away, they will get 5 thousand angry citizens who will definitely come as observers and bring their friends and acquaintances. Everyone will know how scared the CEC is. It’s a huge defeat. You can call this a PR capitulation, only cheaters can come up with such petty moves. They refer to a publication on the site, but there have been no such precedents, so now we have to monitor a thousand-page site on which something may appear in hindsight. ?

The news was received like a bolt from the blue. The activists who were involved in all this are tired, but despite this, they continue to make statements. So far I have no reports that anyone was turned away. Although here we must understand that this resolution is like a slow-acting poison; they swallow our statements and then declare them invalid. Sharpies in their purest form, they don’t even hide their aces in their sleeves, but openly show them, demonstrating their powerlessness in the face of the desire of honest people to control elections.”

Olga Feygina, member of the Council of the Union of Observers of Russia (SONAR):

“So far, not a single story has been recorded that someone was refused on this basis. But I know that representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation ran to correct documents on the date that preceded the appearance of this resolution, because most of the documents were filled out after January 16. “A Just Russia” I’ve delayed my documents, so I’ll take a bunch of them to the TEC (Territorial Election Commission - editor’s note) only today.

This decision of the Central Election Commission is a cunning step in order not to accept documents even from pseudo-opposition parties. The federal election law states that half of the PEC members must be represented by parties - if they are cut down, the law will not be fully respected.

Representatives of all organizations worked on this project: Citizen Observer, SONAR, Golos and RosVybory. We recruited volunteers, more than 4 thousand people came out, excluding those recruited by RosVybory - I don’t have their data.

It’s funny that the new law on education is for the whole country; Churov refers to it in the CEC resolution. But they issued the decree itself only for Moscow. This is weird. They justify their decision by the fact that it is important for voters what kind of education the PEC members have. It turns out that education is important only in Moscow, and in the rest of Russia no one cares about the education of PEC members?”

Georgy Alburov, coordinator of the RosVybory project:

“We managed to attract a lot of volunteers to collect applications for positions in PECs. Today or tomorrow we will finish accepting documents. We collected about 1,500 applications, most of them we submitted to the CEC by January 16. I don’t think that with those that we submitted later , some problems will arise. If TECs refuse us, we will sue.

Legally, this CEC resolution on the website has no force, because it was not published in advance, as required by law. This is an internal document of the Central Election Commission, which we should not pay attention to. It is difficult to say why they took this step. At the beginning of February, PECs will be formed, applications will be considered, and then it will be possible to say what the nature of these amendments are.”