Participants of "Edinaya Rossiya" primaries in Astrakhan claim violations

In Astrakhan, the advance inner-party voting to elect candidates from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party to the City Duma of Astrakhan was held in the conditions of uncontrolled agitation and exaggeration of the information on the number of voters. This was stated by city residents and participants of the primaries.

The "Edinaya Rossiya" primaries for the elections of candidates to the City Duma of Astrakhan were scheduled for May 24. The candidate lists included about 200 people.

The organizing committee of the primaries received seven complaints about violations committed during the voting. One of the precincts is to recount the votes, since candidates Nazym Valeev and Alexander Zhilyakov claimed that at the precinct, the voting results were falsified in favour of their opponents. The complaint was also supported by an observer, who claimed that the number of voters reported in the final protocol turned out to be several times higher than it was during the counting.

The organization of the primaries held by the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party in Astrakhan has been criticized by Internet users. Blogger Alexander Alymov has quoted the city residents' reports on uncontrolled agitation, offer of a bribe of 300 roubles for voting for a particular candidate, and extremely low turnout.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.