Election observer representing "Yabloko" candidate detained in St. Petersburg

An election observer representing Yabloko State Duma candidate Olga Yurkevich was reportedly detained at a polling station in St. Petersburg’s Primorsky District, lawyer and Yabloko member Anton Kostik told MR7 on September 19.

According to Kostik, the observer was detained under Article 19.3 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offences for disobeying a lawful order from a police officer. 

The detained Yabloko observer, identified as Rostislav, is a student at St. Petersburg State University’s Faculty of Sociology. He arrived at polling station No. 1919 on the morning of September 19 to monitor the election process, according to the party’s press service.

“The chairwoman said that he was nobody and accused him of coming to disrupt the election. He requested documents to clarify the situation, but police officers detained him,” Yabloko said.

The young man is currently being held at Police Department No. 86. According to the party, he is expected to be brought before a court later on September 19.

Yabloko has also reported other difficulties involving its observers during the three-day voting period, including alleged refusals to admit observers to polling stations and removals from polling places.

Yabloko had said the previous day that around 200 people had been unable to participate in the election process for various reasons. For example, observers representing a State Duma candidate in Constituency No. 211 were not allowed to work at polling stations under Territorial Election Commission No. 25 because election officials were unable to read the disc containing information about them, as it had been damaged.

In St. Petersburg’s Moskovsky District, meanwhile, according to Yabloko, State Duma and St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly candidate Dmitry Khorzov “went through the wrong door” and entered Room 339 after a notice had been posted on the election commission office door stating that documents would be accepted there. It was later established that his documents had been accepted by someone who was not a member of the election commission.

The head of St. Petersburg’s Electoral Commission, Maxim Meiksin, said the previous day, while commenting on problems with admitting observers, that there could be “mistakes on the part of candidates who, so to speak, did not prepare the documents for observers quite correctly,” while adding that there could also be other reasons and that the commission would investigate.

City Electoral Commission member Yuri Kuzmin separately addressed the issue of observers, saying that they can be appointed by three types of entities: candidates, public-control bodies and political parties. He said, for example, that some observer lists had been submitted to constituency election commissions rather than territorial election commissions, which, according to him, meant the relevant territorial commissions had not received them.

Kuzmin also said that almost all observer lists had been submitted on Thursday, the final day for doing so, with some documents arriving after the commissions had closed. He said the commission was examining such cases.

Elections to the State Duma and the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly are being held from September 18 to 20. In St. Petersburg, 1,975 permanent and 47 temporary polling stations, as well as 107 extraterritorial polling stations, are operating during the three-day vote.

By Tamilla Hasanova