Moscow deputies appeal to mayor over forced voter registration

A group of deputies from the Moscow City Duma are demanding that Mayor Sergey Sobyanin put an end to forced voter registration among civil servants, following reports of government employees being coerced into participating in the July 1 plebiscite on constitutional amendments.

Deputy Mikhail Tumonov published a corresponding letter on his Telegram channel. It includes his signature, as well as the signatures of deputies Evgeny Stupin, Dmitry Loktev, Nikolai Zubrilin, and Elena Shuvalova.

In the letter, the deputies are also demanding an official inquiry, “to hold accountable all officials who organized and carried out the coercion of citizens into voting.”

On June 23, the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said that her department had received only 70 complaints about the use of administrative resources and forced participation in the vote on constitutional amendments.