Actual turnout in Russia’s State Duma election was about 40%, experts say. Russia’s Central Election Commission put it at 59%.
Turnout in the elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, held in Russia on September 18–20, was about 40%, according to mathematician Boris Ovchinnikov and election observation expert Roman Udot, the independent Russian broadcaster TV Rain reported. Russia’s Central Election Commission had put turnout at more than 59%.
“This means the administrative resource was squeezed to the limit. We know the maximum for the administrative resource is around 20%, and that’s already beyond decency. When they have to squeeze an extra 20% of support out of the electorate, everything starts to come out: violence, ballot stuffing, carousel voting, and more,” Udot said.
He also said an entire party, A Just Russia, was “brought into” the State Duma. According to Udot, once 96% of the votes had been counted and it became clear that A Just Russia would not clear the 5% threshold, votes from other parties simply began to be credited to it.
Experts had previously said that on September 21, more than 60,000 votes for A Just Russia appeared in the Central Election Commission’s data within an hour. The party will ultimately be represented in the new Duma.
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