Ella Pamfilova reports pressure to public sector employees at elections in Dagestan

On February 16, Ella Pamfilova, the chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia, arrived in Dagestan. Her meeting with members of political parties, public activists, and authors of complaints to the CEC was held behind closed doors. Not all people who wanted to attend the meeting with Ella Pamfilova succeeded in their wish. Later, Ella Pamfilova held another meeting at which the opposition talked about the violations revealed by them during the election in September 2016.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after the elections held on September 18, 2016, Ella Pamfilova called Dagestan as one of the most problematic regions.

In Dagestan, during the meeting with Ella Pamfilova, the chair of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, opposition members again raised the question of the use of administrative resource, pressure on observers, and ballot box stuffing at the elections.

When answering the questions of participants of the meeting, the chair of the Russian CEC has admitted that the electoral legislation has shortcomings. Ella Pamfilova herself has mentioned complaints of public employees about threats of dismissal in connection with their voting after the Ramazan Abdulatipov's statements on elimination in Dagestan of bribery and intimidation during elections.

The chair of the Russian CEC has also noted the need to ensure that election committees should include members of political parties. Ella Pamfilova has also proposed to increase the number of observers and to introduce a system of their training.

"I have listened to everything, and we shall investigate the situation," said Ella Pamfilova.

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