Thursday, 1 December 2011Review of the Russian press of November 30, 2011. In a review of Russian newspapers:
Russia is preparing for elections that will be held on Sunday. Izvestia states that the election observers are arriving. "The Central Electoral Commission has accredited nearly 560 international observers - the elections in Russia will be followed by the representatives of the OSCE, PACE, CIS, as well as independent experts," the publication says. Despite the charges of violation of the election laws and the complaint directed by the CEC to the Prosecutor General, short-term observers from PACE, among the first, will arrive in Moscow on December 1.
The fact-finding mission of PACE was in Moscow in mid-November. Then, its work culminated with the scandal. The press conference that was a result of the brief visit to the Central Electoral Commission, due to the given evaluation, was regarded as a violation, and appeals to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Foreign Ministry followed. However, no decision on the incident has been adopted. "The documents from the Central Electoral Commission have been received and will be checked," the source said to Izvestia. PACE argues that no formal complaints from the Central Electoral Commission have been received and intends to continue its work. The group of parliamentarians that PACE will send as a mission to Russia has already been defined. The deputy of the British Parliament Mike Hancock, who worked with Russian citizens, suspected of spying, and Ekaterina Zatuliveter were supposed to arrive as members of the group. But at the last minute, the deputy had to cancel a trip, due to the death of his close friend.
The OSCE should also arrive in Moscow at approximately the same time. "It is expected that parliamentarians will arrive on November 30 and December 1," the secretariat of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly told Izvestia. 100 people are expected from this organization.
Kommersant describes how the CEC is preparing for elections: "Vladimir Churov demanded parties’ attendance of the elections", the publication says. The head of the Central Electoral Commission held a meeting with the heads of commissions, whom he obliged "to fix" the lack of party representatives and observers at the electoral districts, as well as to make sure that the observers do not take secret photos and videos. These orders were given yesterday to the heads of the CEC commissions by the head of the CEC Vladimir Churov. Party members believe that, compared to 2007, "management of the campaign by Churov increased." Four years ago campaign videos were not removed from the air on advice of the CEC head. The head of the CEC remembered foreign observers as well. "We accredit all six and a half hundred international observers," he confirmed.
The expert of the association Golos Alexander Kanev believes the situation will not be fundamentally different from that of the 2007 election. He noted that already there are instructions on "how to remove the observers and press from the districts." In addition, as the expert states, there are problems with the voting of "dependent voters," and the "potential of abuses" during the voting through absentee increased, insofar as the CEC produced 2.6 million absentee ballots, that is 200 thousand more than in 2007.
As stated by the executive secretary of the Yabloko party Galina Mikhaleva, compared to 2007 the "manual control of the campaign by Churov increased." She attributes this to the fact that "a very concrete problem is set for him, and it will be more difficult to solve it." "Last time we had no problems with videos we faced this year,” said Deputy Chief of Staff of the Liberal Democratic Party, Yaroslav Nilov.
“We did not receive letters with recommendations to avoid nationalist statements." "Today, there is a wild misuse of administrative resources, the government is preparing for falsification," a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Council of Fair Russia Gennady Gudkov said. Thus, according to him, the suburbs "are pumping chairmen of the territorial commissions" to get the desired result and the head of the Central Electoral Commission does not respond to treatment.
Novaya Gazeta published instructions for the "politically concerned readers," and observers about how to deal with potential fraud. The paper describes typical violations and ways to counter them. For example, the publication says that the ballot box at the time of sealing may contain bulletins. Observers may be required to open the box (if it is suspected) before the first voter. It also describes a vote "on tour": "People are brought from district to district. They come to specially trained members of the District Electoral Commission (DEC) and receive a ballot on behalf of those who traditionally do not go to the polls," the only method of struggle with the violation is high turnout. "If a citizen noticed that his name has already ‘voted,’ he should immediately raise a stink and tell the media and observers," Novaya Gazeta instructs.
|
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Translated and Revised by Viktoriia Demydova
|
|
