St. Petersburg election officials from Russia’s antiwar Yabloko party were ordered to report to military offices at 9 a.m. on the first day of voting — exactly when polls are scheduled to open
Source: Fontanka
Several Yabloko representatives serving on precinct election commissions in St. Petersburg’s Krasnogvardeysky District have received summonses ordering them to report to military enlistment offices, city election commission member Pavel Shapchits told Fontanka.
The summonses arrived through the Gosuslugi state services portal. They instruct the commission members to report to a military enlistment office at 9 a.m. on September 18 to update their records. That is the first day of voting, and polling stations are scheduled to open at the same time.
Fontanka contacted two commission members who received summonses. Both serve on precinct commissions overseen by Territorial Election Commission No. 44.
Svetlana Nefedova, who chairs Territorial Election Commission No. 44, said this was the first she had heard of the situation. She could not say whether requiring precinct commission members to report to military enlistment offices would affect voting.
Russian authorities are trying to keep Yabloko, which is campaigning under the antiwar slogan “For Peace and Freedom,” out of the elections. A month ago, the Supreme Court removed Yabloko’s federal party list from the State Duma elections on spurious grounds. Courts across the country then began disqualifying the party’s candidates in single-member districts and removing its regional lists. Yabloko has also faced obstruction while campaigning, and the party’s observers have been barred from polling stations.
Russia will hold elections at various levels across the country from September 18 to 20, including elections to the ninth State Duma.
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