Yabloko announced falsification of voting results in Shakhty

Four candidates from the Yabloko party participated in the elections of the Shakhty City Duma deputies, observers were present in only three of the four districts. The party believes that the voting results in the 8th district, where the Yabloko candidate took the last place, were falsified.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, the acting governor of the Rostov region Yuri Slyusar ("United Russia") is leading in the elections of the head of the region with 96.33% of the votes, the Central Election Commission reported on the evening of September 14 after processing 0.47% of the protocols. On September 15, the Electoral Commission announced Slyusar's victory in the elections with 81.25% of the votes.

The Yabloko party in the Rostov region nominated lists of candidates for the city councils of Rostov-on-Don and the city of Shakhty in the municipal elections, but was unable to take part in the elections in the regional center, the chairman of the regional branch, Alexei Popov, told a correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot”.

"Since we are not a parliamentary party, we had to collect signatures. To register the municipal list in Rostov-on-Don, we needed to collect almost 4.5 thousand signatures in less than 2.5 weeks. This is an impossible task with the resources we had, so this procedure was not successful. We were unable to submit documents for registering the list and dropped out of the elections," he said.

Four Yabloko candidates who ran in Rostov-on-Don in single-mandate constituencies were also unable to collect the required number of signatures in their support. "As a rule, it is from 130 to 150 signatures. I would like to share this alarming observation: in this campaign, residents of Rostov-on-Don increasingly reminded us not of residents of a large metropolis, a scientific center of southern Russia, but, let's say, of the farthest periphery, because they were afraid, roughly speaking, of our candidates. Television propaganda has a very strong effect on people. Many live with stereotypes that parties, public movements and organizations that advocate for peace are anti-national, anti-patriotic organizations. And this, of course, affected the fact that they signed in support of our candidate," Popov said.

In the elections to the Shakhty City Duma, Yabloko nominated six candidates. “Four people collected signatures by the appointed time and all four were registered with the territorial election commission. The signatures were of very good quality. We nominated a good, young, combat-ready team: we have Alexey Bukov there, he served in the army himself, saw for himself what it was like, joined as a thinking, active person to the party that advocates for peace and freedom. He went with this slogan. We also nominated Ilya Cheremisov, an entrepreneur, head of a management company, chairman of the local branch of the Yabloko party in the city of Shakhty, Nikita Dyumin, a law student. Vitaly Fomin, a pensioner, a well-known activist who has repeatedly participated in elections from Yabloko,” Popov said.

According to him, almost all political forces campaigned in the city of Shakhty throughout the election campaign. Observers from Yabloko were present at the polling stations only where candidates were registered, and they did not reveal any violations. "United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and independent candidates campaigned. Three days of voting, of course, make it very difficult to control the voting, but we nominated observers in all the districts where we had nominated candidates - in three of the four districts where we ran. Other parties - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, their candidates - also nominated observers. The voting there went very smoothly and without any glitches. That is, we managed to reason with the commissions, to return them to the path of compliance with the law," Popov explained.

The turnout at the polling stations where there was control, according to him, was up to 19% in the first days. "It slightly exceeded 20 percent, based on the results of all three days, rarely reaching the 30 percent mark. But if we look at the polling stations where other parties refused to post observers - and we could not post them by law, because we do not have candidates for governor and we did not have candidates for municipal deputies there - then the numbers there are strikingly different. They put Rostov Oblast on a par with electoral sultanates, this is a new trend. The turnout percentages even on the first day at some stations were astonishing. There are polling stations where the turnout exceeded 90% and this is without taking into account the DEG - supposedly these voters themselves came and voted, which simply cannot be. The so-called observers from the public chamber and from "United Russia" completely turned a blind eye to everything that was happening. Many such ugly things happened in their presence - and when necessary, they were sent to eat or even removed from the stations. In general, where there was no control, very high turnout figures were shown and, accordingly, a huge percentage of votes for the incumbent governor. The same thing happened where we had one candidate, this is district number 8. The CPRF and “New People” refused to put observers there, accordingly, it was difficult to control the mobile voting. Mobile ballot boxes arrived full of 100-150 votes - it is impossible, in principle, to visit so many addresses even in a day. At other polling stations, where there was control, it was very difficult to visit 25 voters at home. By the way, it took up to four hours to visit 25 people - and here they visit 100 people in two hours and the ballot box arrives full. They take 156 ballots, 156 filled ballots arrive. That is, everything was opened, everyone was at home, there is not a single shortcoming in this matter. Accordingly, the results of the “United Russia” candidates are inflated, and ours are greatly underestimated. Because of these large-scale falsifications, our candidate received a minimal number of votes, the last place, a little more than 4%. We do not recognize the results of the elections of deputies in the 8th electoral district in the city of Shakhty,” Popov emphasized.

In his opinion, the elections of the governor of the Rostov region are difficult to analyze, since in the absence of observation and recording of violations there is no specific and legally significant evidence of falsification. "But looking at these figures and comparing them with the polling stations where observation took place, we can say with confidence that this was "drawn" on the instructions of the administration, higher commissions and other interested structures. In general, despite the absence of our candidates, we received alarming reports about the situation in Rostov-on-Don: that observers were being removed, safe packages were being opened at night, observers were not allowed to familiarize themselves with the lists of voters - that is, a fairly extensive list of violations," Popov said.

He also noted that the administrative and organizational capabilities of parliamentary parties to monitor the voting are decreasing. "In some cases, there are so-called local conspiracies, deals between representatives of the so-called parliamentary five parties and local authorities. I believe that in some cases, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation deliberately left half of the polling stations in the city of Shakhty empty, without appointing observers, simply draining certain districts and territories. The New People have also not been noticed in their activity. The LDPR and A Just Russia lack organizational strength," Popov said.

He added that in district 13, Yabloko candidate Nikita Yumin received the support of more than 12% of voters. "Having taken third place after United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ilya Cheremisov performed with dignity with 7% of the votes. And in general, all our candidates running for office with the slogan for peace and freedom demonstrated personal fortitude and courage, great diligence and a desire to help our people," Popov believes.

According to the politician, in the gubernatorial elections, all of Slyusar's competitors effectively withdrew from the election and refused to engage in real political struggle. “In particular, the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Yevgeny Bessonov, was not active either, we consider this a political exchange. In our opinion, the failure of the gubernatorial elections in the Rostov region is connected with a personal agreement between Slyusar and the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov: his grandson Mikhail was appointed to the post of deputy minister of economic development of our region. Apparently, apart from a Muscovite, a relative of a well-known political figure, there was no normal economist in the Rostov region who could work worthily for the benefit of the region,” Popov said.

In which regions of the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts elections are being held in September, you can read in the “Caucasian Knot” reference “Single Voting Day 2025 in the South of Russia”. The "Caucasian Knot" publishes materials about these elections on the page "Elections-2025: South of Russia".

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