The head of Russia’s Communist Party has asked the Prosecutor General to investigate a polling system that reportedly allowed someone to vote twice in March’s presidential election.
In his letter, quoted by the RBC news site in a Wednesday report, Gennadiy Zyuganov alleged that the “Mobile Voter” system had allowed for “mass double voting.” He described previous assessments of the issue by the Central Election Commission “inadequate.”
He proceeded to explain that the system allowed people to vote at ballot stations in their place of residence, and then vote again at any ballot station of their choice. This was reportedly made possible by the system allowing changes to data provided by users during registration.
“As the Central Election Commission has given an obviously inadequate appraisal of this problem, I think that only law enforcement agencies coordinated by the Prosecutor General’s Office can reveal the possible criminal conspiracy seeking mass double voting, as well as single incidents in which citizens repeatedly expressed their political will,” Zyuganov wrote in his letter.
The Communist leader then asked the Prosecutor General to launch a “complete and all-round probe” that would uncover all incidents of double voting in the course of the March 18 presidential election. The poll ended in victory for incumbent President Vladimir Putin, and the swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for May 7.
Soon after the voting ended, Head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova told reporters that the number of violations had halved compared to previous elections. Pamfilova noted that this had been achieved largely because about 80 percent of polling stations had been equipped with CCTV systems that were broadcasting the voting and ballot count on the internet. Still, some stations had results of the voting annulled because of violations that were uncovered.
Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin came second in the race with 11.7 percent of votes. In a subsequent speech before the Communist Party leadership, Grudinin blamed his poor performance on a deliberate media campaign allegedly launched by the authorities.