Opposition accuses administration of fraud in Vyborg local elections
Opposition groups which suffered losses in Sunday’s local elections in the Russian district of Vyborg are accusing the regional administration of electoral fraud.
Police in the area, which lies between St. Petersburg and the Finnish border, dispute both the electoral fraud accusations, and claims of a political motive in the murder of an opposition politician.
The local elections held a week ago Sunday concluded, as expected, in a victory for those in power. The two main opposition groups failed to win any seats in the 14 local councils in the area.
"Voters were bribed with vodka and money. The opposition got hardly any air time on local television stations. Dozens of crew-cut hooligans were sent to disrupt my election rallies", says Sergei Rubinovich, the leader of one of the opposition groups.
The elections were for 175 seats on 14 local councils who will later set up a regional council which will choose a new district leader. Incumbent Georgi Poryadin is expected to be re-elected.
Formerly the head of the Vyborg shipyard, Poryadin has been in power in Vyborg since 2000.
Grigori Kondrat, head of the city’s anti-crime militia, or police, says that the opposition has not managed to prove its allegations of fraud.
He said that there were some minor administrative violations linked with the elections. He also said that questions of irregularities related to advance voting are a matter for the prosecutors, and not the police.
Three days before the election, Sergei Plahti, a candidate of the Rubinovich group, was murdered.
Rubinovich says that the killing was politically motivated. In an article published two weeks before his death, Plahti accused district leaders of intimidation. However, Grigori Kondrat says that the crime was most likely related to the Plahti’s business activities.
Plahti was a shareholder in a hotel situated near the Finnish border, and was a wholesaler of CDS and DVDs.
"In the spring, the Militia confiscated a large number of recordings from Plahti, and now we are investigating if they were illegal copies", Kondrat says.
Georgi Smirnov, leader of the Baltic Shield opposition group, says that the problem with Vyborg is that the administration promotes the interests of a small group of businessmen.
Rubinovich, the leader of the other opposition group, goes even further, accusing the district administration, the police, and the prosecutors’ office of collusion, and says that prosecutions of certain key figures in the area are routinely cancelled.
Poryadin’s aide Vladimir Kolesnkov dismisses the charges.
"If you look at our list of candidates, you will see that there are only a couple of businessmen there. The rest are teachers, doctors, and military officers. Whose businesses are they supposed to be protecting?"
Voter turnout in the Vyborg elections was 32%.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 17.10.2005 - TODAY |
 Opposition accuses administration of fraud in Vyborg local elections
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