Out the window from Europe

The European Court of Human Rights satisfied the complaint of a group of residents of St. Petersburg against violations during elections to the Sovetum and the Legislative Assembly of the city in December 2011 and ordered Russia to pay them 38 thousand euros. The decision in the Davydov and others against Russia case is posted on the ECHR website.

Eleven applicants, including former candidates for the Legislative Assembly from "Fair Russia", members of the precinct commissions with a decisive vote and ordinary voters, complained about the falsification of voting results in favor of the party and the authorities in several territorial commissions. According to the official explanation, the discrepancies arose after these commissions counted the voices.

According to the plaintiffs, Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention (the right to free elections) and Article 13 of the Convention (the right to an effective means of legal protection) were violated. In addition, two applicants indicated that the authorities tried to dissuade them to file complaints to Strasbourg by violating 34 conventions (the right to individual petition). The decision notes that before contacting the ECHR, the plaintiffs complained to the horiz being and the prosecutor’s office, but they did not manage to revise the results of voting and criminal prosecution of falsifiers.

In October 2014, the Russian government refused to answer questions from the ECHR on the complaint of St. Petersburg voters. The court was interested in the details of the conversion of the votes. The Russian authorities stated that issues regarding the internal procedures for conducting elections are not related to the competence of the ECHR.