Police check the vote of a deceased voter in the Ulyanovsk region

The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ulyanovsk Region is conducting an investigation into possible fraud in the elections of deputies to the regional legislative assembly and local government bodies. According to the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, there are ruins at the addresses where home-based voting took place, and one of the voters who allegedly voted has long since died. The Regional Election Commission has already recognized the falsification, and the votes in this polling station have been annulled. The police do not comment on the investigation.

The basis for the investigation was a statement by candidate for deputy of the Novomalyklinsky village council Sergei Kryuchkov (KPRF), who discovered mass home-based voting at polling station No. 2008. “On Saturday, we noticed that a lot of people voted at home within three hours – it turned out that the visiting commission spent no more than three minutes at each address, which is impossible. The same thing happened on Friday. Then we decided to check the dubious addresses,” Mr. Kryuchkov explained to Kommersant.

Let us remind you that together with municipal bodies in the Ulyanovsk region they elected a new convocation of the legislative assembly. According to the voting results, United Russia received 49.9% of the votes on party lists, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – 16%, LDPR – 13.6%, Communists of Russia – 7.5%, A Just Russia – For Truth – 5.2 %, “New people” – 4.5%. In the Melekess single-mandate constituency, which includes Novaya Malykla, the candidate from United Russia, Ramil Khairullin, won with 54%. And nine United Russia members and one self-nominated candidate were elected to the Novomalyklinsky village council in the ten-mandate district.

According to Sergei Kryuchkov, a visit to the site showed that no one lived in three houses: “Overgrown, collapsed, without glass.” Another house was closed and put up for sale, and its owner said by phone that he did not vote, Mr. Kryuchkov claims. In the next building, the candidate was told that the nurse who allegedly voted “has been living and working in the North for two years,” and at another address, that the son of a member of the precinct commission who allegedly voted “lives in Moscow and has not been here for more than six months.” Finally, the owner of one of the houses, as it turned out, died more than two years ago.

According to Sergei Kryuchkov, someone wrote applications on behalf of voters to vote at home and then threw false ballots into a portable box. In total, according to him, seven such cases were recorded. The regional election committee told Kommersant that the information was confirmed in two of them. “Everything was clear there, and no one denies that they (members of the precinct commission.— “Kommersant”) did this. We recommended that they cancel two safe packages – for September 8 and 9, which was done by the commission. A total of 137 ballots were cancelled. For now, the police continue to check each fact,” Yuri Andrienko, chairman of the regional election commission, explained to Kommersant.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs told Kommersant that “witnesses and voters are now being interviewed,” but refused to disclose the preliminary results of the audit. A source close to law enforcement agencies told Kommersant that in several cases voters confirmed the fact of their vote, “but the remaining voters cannot yet be found.” “If the facts stated in the statement are confirmed, the materials will be transferred to the Investigative Committee, where they will decide to initiate a criminal case,” added the Kommersant interlocutor. The prosecutor’s office of the Ulyanovsk region told Kommersant that they are keeping the situation “under control.”

Let us note that criminal cases in the Ulyanovsk region are initiated after each major vote. Thus, five years ago, during the elections to the Legislative Assembly, 100 ballots marked for United Russia and its candidate were found at a polling station in the Karsun district. However, a year later the case was suspended due to the lack of suspects. In 2021, during the elections of governor and State Duma deputies in the Inzensky district, members of the commission, as now in Novaya Malykla, included residents who do not live at the indicated addresses in the home voting list. This time the culprits were found: the court sentenced the chairman and member of the local election commission to fines of 60 thousand and 50 thousand rubles. respectively.

Yuri Andrienko believes that in connection with the incident in Novaya Malykla, “a criminal case should definitely be opened” if the police confirm the fact of falsification: “Yes, it’s very unpleasant to admit that this is happening here. But if the facts are confirmed, a criminal case must be opened and the perpetrators must be severely punished so that this does not happen again.” At the same time, it is important to find customers, because “members of the commission could hardly commit such a crime voluntarily,” the chairman of the regional election commission is sure.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk; Andrey Prah