The conflict between the Voronezh authorities and the ex-governor Gordeev has reached the federal level

The conflict between the Voronezh authorities and ex-governor Alexei Gordeev has reached the federal level. At the last meeting of the commission, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia Nikolai Bulaev drew attention to the fact that the TEC of the Central District of Voronezh “played” on the side of one of the candidates of the by-elections to the City Duma of the administrative center held in 2022.

One of the candidates, now Voronezh deputy Marina Bocharova (United Russia), during the campaign applied to the district court with a demand to remove the New People candidate Margarita Kudaeva, who did not document the change of surname. The lawsuit was filed against the election commission of the Sovetsky district, where the elections were held, and the commission of the Tsentralny district, which is organizing, was involved as an interested person.

“At the very first court session, the TEC of the Central District took the side of the plaintiff – she admitted the claim and subsequently took an active position in all meetings, speaking on the side of the plaintiff, demanded explanations from the TEC of the Soviet District,” a Vedomosti source close to the mayor’s office explained Voronezh. Bulaev said at a CEC meeting that such courts are “nonsense”: “This is the first time in Russian practice, I don’t remember this.” Bulaev stressed that electoral commissions operate in the legal field, and if they leave it and begin to act in the political field, then regional electoral commissions should respond to this and “root out the evil.” According to the interlocutor of Vedomosti, the current chairman of the TEC of the Central District, Sergei Kaplin, went on sick leave, another member of the commission, an employee of the district council, Elena Ledeneva, acts on his behalf by proxy. In connection with what happened, the CEC asked for an explanation from the election commission of the Voronezh region, the source said. Further decisions, including personnel decisions, will depend on the position of the CEC.