After mass complaints about forced voting in the parliamentary elections in Russia, the Central Election Commission has announced an examination of the allegations.
There are 137 notices from 45 regions of the country "about the compulsion to vote," said election officer Ella Pamfilova on Saturday.
Accordingly, there should also have been pressure on voters to cast their vote in the new online process.
The independent election observation organization Golos had published numerous videos on which hundreds of uniformed men and presumably entire workforces from state-owned companies can be seen in the polling stations.
The pictures of the long queues were explained by the fact that on Friday after the start of the three-day parliamentary election, the civil servants were asked to cast their votes by around noon.
However, the vote was set for three days for the first time on the grounds that this was necessary in times of the corona pandemic in order to maintain social distance.
Critics suggest that the longer choice should make manipulation easier.
Letter of complaint just torn up
Golos also posted footage and photos of ballot boxes being crammed with ballot papers. This is considered to be a very common method of election manipulation in Russia. The number of these videos was hardly manageable. At the same time, there were complaints from several parts of Russia that the camera surveillance failed again and again. In the past, those responsible for the violations have sometimes had trouble with the authorities - because of the video evidence.
This time observers also complained that letters of complaint were simply torn up. Election supervisor Pamfilowa invited Golos to talk about the possible violations. The elections in the largest country in the world in terms of area end this Sunday. Not only the 450 members of the new State Duma will be chosen. In some cases, new regional and city parliaments are also elected. In the total of more than 4,400 elections, over 31,000 new mandates are awarded.