The Communist Party (PCRM) will count the votes that will be cast in the November 30 legislative elections in parallel. The party does not trust the Central Election Commission (CEC) and considers that the Commission aims to ensure a better score in elections for the ruling parties, the chief of the PCRM’s electoral staff Artur Reshetnikov said in a news conference, quoted by IPN.
The MP stated that the PCRM has filed 15 complaints concerning violations committed by election runners to the CEC since the start of the electoral period. Most of the complaints were rejected for procedure-related reasons. This way the CEC favors the ruling parties that violate the electoral legislation and resort to voter corruption by offering presents and that started to campaign before they were registered as election runners.
According to Artur Reshetnikov, the PCRM is disadvantaged also in terms of appearance in the mass media. The media outlets controlled by some of the politicians present 90% of the news in a way that favors the party or politician owning them, while the other 10% of the news articles denigrate the Communists. The PCRM does not afford to buy electoral ads. At some of the channels, the advertisements cost €4,000 per minute. That’s why the party will lay emphasis on the direct communication with the people in the current election campaign.
The PCRM will continue to inform the CEC about the violations committed by the election runners and all the complaints will be also submitted to the international observers.
Artur Reshetnikov also spoke about the impossibility of voting based on the Soviet-type passport, saying it is an attempt by the ruling parties to deprive the pensioners who sympathize with the PCRM of the right to vote. He called on the pensioners to obtain identity cards as soon as possible so as to be able to vote.
The politician expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that only five polling places will be established in Russia for the November 30 legislative electrons. The figure is much lower compared with the number of polling places that will be set up in the EU.
In the ballot, the PCRM will be under No. 13.
