14.08.2019, Moscow.
The signatures that caused the barring of candidates from the Moscow city council elections will be reverified, the Chair of the Russian Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, stated on August 8 during a meeting of the working group investigating the candidates’ complaints.
Handwriting experts from different offices should put an end to the dispute over the falsification of the voters’ signatures, which caused candidates to be barred from the elections.
“A group works for us… more than a dozen experts. They are working independently… to eliminate the pressure from any of the parties,” the Chair of Russia’s Central Election Commission stated.
The signatures are verified each time voters’ signatures are submitted in support of a candidate in any election. Candidates to whom questions arise regarding the submitted signatures are always provided with the results of the investigations, conclusions, and records. However, some candidates refuse to familiarize themselves the reasons for the refusal in registration.
The elections for the Moscow city council will be held on September 8. The verification of the signatures has shown that 22 unregistered candidates have 339 deceased persons in their petitions, and 29 unregistered candidates have more than 14 thousand of nonexistent voters. The opposition refused to admit this fact and began protests.
Editorial comment
Under such circumstances, the creation of a reconciliation commission, which would give an objective assessment on the quality of the collected signatures and show the results of its work, should solve all the issues. It would immediately become clear that if the signatures are genuine; then it would be necessary to punish those responsible for removing candidates from the election. If this is not the case, then conclusive evidence must be provided, and the forgers who collected false signatures must be brought out into the open.
Further events showed that the opposition does not need this. They want to repeat the Bolotnaya and Sakharov of 2011–12 [the maidan-like pro-Western pseudo-liberal protests on Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Avenue in 2011–12 – editorial note]. Therefore, it turns out that the opposition knew in advance that the signatures were fake, and its goal was to destabilize the country.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
