Disturbances during the course of elections in Mari El
14.01.05

During the elections of President of the Republic Mari El he disturbances from the side of presidential candidate Leonid Markelov had acquired mass, frightening and unlawful nature.

According to the information from observers, the supporters of Markelov spread bags of sugar, flour, concentrated feeds, they soldered population with alcoholic beverages.

The leaders of state organizations, departments and ministries have reported every two hours to the higher commanding officials about the progress of voting by their subordinates.

The inhabitants of the village Pekshik-Sola of Medvedo district (raion) reported that observers from the side of presidential candidate M.A.Dolgov. This process was observed also in other regions of republic, supposedly for the purpose of throwing bulletins for Markelov into urns.

In Znamenskii settlement of the Medvedo district, as observers reported that the head of rural administration forcefully drove people off of their homes for the voting.

The head of the rural administration of village Pekshik-Sola unlawfully interfered in the work of election committee under the guise of being supposedly the trusted agent of President Leonid Markelov, having with him, as it turned out, false badge with the inscription "observer".

During the counting of votes in Yoshkar-Ola electoral district No 112 at 22.15 the chairman and the secretary of election commission have been caught red-handed during the attempt to place two ballots into the urn for the voting at the Presidential elections of the Republic Mari El.

During the voting the member of the election committee Kislitsina G.A. threw a ballot into the urn instead of Faina Krasil'nikova.

During the voting at the electoral district No 477 of Shulka rural administration (Orshanka district) instead of the voters Pavlova G.G., Romanov K.A., Rybakova A.F., who were in the state of alcoholic intoxication, their bulletins were cast by the members of the election committee of this district.

At 6.30 PM electricity was cut out for purpose of dropping the ballots into the urn in the rooms of electoral district No 393 "Aksarinskii", about which a report was comprised about the disturbance of elections legislation during the course of the Presidential elections of the Republic Mari El.

Similar situation had occurred in the electoral districts "Gagarinskii" and "Sovietskii", Orshanka village and also in Medvedevo district, where electricity was cut out by the local authorities one hour prior to the end of voting, about which the report is also comprised.

In breach of Art.22 sub-art. 4 of the "The Presidential elections of RME" Act, in Orshanka village, in the electoral districts No 475, 467, heads of these rural administrations participated as observers from the side of Mr. Markelov, instead of his own observers.

UNIT VECTOR, RTR, NTV television networks reported unreservedly false information in favour to the acting President of RME Markelov. NTV filming crew situated in Mari El is agitated by the "inverting" of information, prepared by them for the television network NTV.

These and other numerous disturbances of the law of the Republic of Mari El No 18-3 - "The Presidential elections of the republic Mari El’s" Act of 27.06.2003 and Law No 67FZ "about the basic guarantees of election rights and right to the participation in the referendum of the citizens of Russian Federation" of 12.06.2002 have occurred and were fixed during the Presidential elections of the republic Mari El on December 19th, 2004.