Observers report on coercion of state servants to vote in Sochi

On the first day of voting, voters mostly came to polling stations in Sochi with invitations from enterprises; they put their marks in ballot papers, made photos of them and sent somewhere; members of precinct election commissions (PECs) and observers have noted, believing that in this way, authorities are making use of their administrative resources to promote the "right" candidates.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that observers and the deputy, Alexander Korovainy, informed that on September 17, voters were massively brought to polling stations in the Krasnodar Territory.

On September 17, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent visited three PECs. Employees of various enterprises came to all of them with invitations. They were mostly young people. They answered the correspondent's questions sparingly, saying that they "had been told at work to vote."

One of them, Vladimir by name, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he had voted for the report and his boss asked him to send a photo. He said that he ticked the ballot paper as he had been told. "I only know [the candidate] the posters. He had done nothing bad and nothing good to me personally. But everyone says he will win. I don't believe in elections and wouldn't have gone, but I'm afraid of dismissal," Vladimir has explained.

* The organization is included by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 18, 2021 at 03:18 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.