Kabardino-Balkaria

In contrast to such Russian regions where the election observers' movement is strong (in particular: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnodar Krai and Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk and Moscow oblasts), the true results of the election in The Kabardino-Balkar Republic (Kabardino-Balkaria) located in the North Caucasus have been mystery for many years. In this region neither local branches of political parties nor independent movements of electoral observers have control over the course of elections. This happens because of the weakness of local civil society, which did not develop strong opposition that could resist the authorities as well as did not encourage independent observation movements.

Electoral analysts such as Sergey Shpilkin have been proving for many years that the results in Kabardo-Balkaria election are seriously falsified (see Sergey Shpilkin's diagram on the presidential election 2018 in Kabardo-Bakaria). However, there was a lack of undeniable, comprehensible evidence that would confirm this thesis.

In order to analyze the results of the presidential election in Kabardo-Balkaria region in 2018, the participants of the "Observers in Action" project observed the voting day in as many as 30 electoral commissions in the Baksan Urban district (PECs №30, №31, №34, №37, №39, №40 and №41), as well as in the districts: Baksansky (PECs № 8, №11, №13, №14, №16, №19 and №22), Zolsky (PECs №45, №53, №54, №56 , №57, №58 and №62), Leskensky (PECs №74, №75 and №77), Maysky (PECs №77, №78, №90 and №94) and Elbrussky (PECs №341 and №343).

We focused in particular on the search for the difference between the official turn-out and the number of people who actually gave their votes at the polling station. In addition, we were looking for two electoral irregularities: the ballot stuffing and multiple votes. However, our goal did not include the impact of election fraud on the results of individual candidates in the election of the President of Russia.

Our analysis showed that the election results in Kabardino-Balkaria were falsified in all polling stations in each of the observed districts. Falsification do not depend on the voting place (village, city), or nationalities of commission members and their electorates (the Kabardins, the Balkars, the Russians).

The most common type of electoral fraud is the so-called rewriting of protocols (editing the numbers in electoral protocols), which we observed in all the electoral commissions analysed. Less common, but also very popular, is ballot stuffing, which we saw in more than half of the electoral commissions (the list of 19 PECs where there were such violations: №8, №11, №13, №14, №16, №19, № 22, №45, №53, №54, №56, №57, №62, №74, №75, №77, №78, №94 and №341). In 4 electoral commissions, the ballot stuffing was massive, and we observed at least 40 such situations! Multiple voting is also widespread, which was also observed in at least half of the commissions (the list of 19 PECs where there were such violations: №8, №14, №19, №22, №30, №45, №53, №54, №56, №57, №58, №74, №75, №78, №90, №94 and №341). In 7 electoral commissions we have observed at least 10 cases of multiple voting and in one of the commissions, multiple voting took place at least 120 times!

In total, in all election commissions observed by us in the region, we recorded the theft of 31075 votes, as well as 292 cases of ballot stuffing and 310 cases of multiple voting. Thus, the scale of electoral fraud in Kabardo-Balkaria was the largest of the four Russian regions we observed.

The list of electoral commissions with the highest number of irregularities:

The number of falsified votes: In 6 commissions with unprecedented cases of massive falsifications, the official protocols included 1844 (PEC №74), 1624 (PEC №75), 1612 (PEC №78), 1582 (PEC №90), 1554 (PEC №13) , 1530 (PEC №30) votes more than the actual number of voters.

To what extent the turnout in the polling station was overstated? In 5 unprecedented PECs in this respect, the voter turnout in PECs was overestimated by 76% (PECs №74 and №13), 75% (PEC №75), 74% (PEC №39) and 73% (PEC № 16). Thus in PEC №74, the worst election commission in this respect, it resulted in overstating the official turnout by 6.6 times!

The number of observed facts of ballot-stuffing. In 4 PECs where these falsifications took place at the largest scale, we observed 59 (PEC №8), 57 (PEC №54), 50 (PEC №19) and 42 (PEC №11) cases of ballot stuffing.

The number of observed facts of multiple voting. In 7 PECs where these falsifications took place at the largest scale we observed 120 (PEC №56), 36 (PEC №8), 28 (PEC №94), 20 (PEC №58), 19 (PEC №22), 17 (PEC №14) and 16 (PEC №19) cases of multiple voting.