Karachay-Cherkessia

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 Karachay-Cherkess Republic (Karachay-Cherkessia) 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 Karachay-Cherkessia election are seriously falsified (see Sergey Shpilkin's diagram on the presidential election 2018 in Karachay-Cherkessia). 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 Karachay-Cherkessia region in 2018, the participants of the "Observers in Action" project observed the voting day in 11 electoral commissions in the Karachayevsky District (PECs №140, №144 and №145), Malokarachayevsky District (PECs №149, №156 and №163), Prikubansky District (PECs №191 and №194), Ust-Dzhegutinsky District (PECs №212 and №213), and Khabezsky District (PEC №239).

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 Karachay-Cherkessia were falsified in almost all polling stations in almost all observed districts. Falsification do not depend on the voting place (village, city), or nationalities of commission members and their electorates (the Karachays, the Cherkess, 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 9 out of 11 electoral commissions analysed (it happened in PECs №140, №144, №145, №149, №156, №163, №191, №194 and №213). Another very popular way of falsification was ballot stuffing, which we saw in more than half of the electoral commissions (№144, №156, №163, №191, №194 and №213). In 2 electoral commissions, the ballot stuffing was massive, and we observed at least 13 such situations in one of them and more than 50 in another one! Multiple voting is also widespread in the region, which was also observed in at least half of the commissions (PECs №156, №163, №194, №213 and №239). In 1 electoral commission multiple voting took place at least 50 times! In a few cases, our observers noticed strange and artificially-organized groups of voters, whose arrival could indicate the possibility of the fact of carousel voting (voters are being brought to several electoral commissions in order to vote several times). In the process of video observation, however, it is difficult to prove the occurrence of election carousels.

In total, in all election commissions observed by us in the region, we recorded the theft of 5320 votes, as well as 83 cases of ballot stuffing and 61 cases of multiple voting. Thus, the scale of electoral fraud in Karachay-Cherkessia was the second 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 5 commissions with unprecedented cases of massive falsifications the official protocols included 846 (PEC №194), 830 (PEC №156), 820 (PEC №144), 803 (PEC №149), 780 (PEC №145) votes more than the actual number of voters.

To what extent the turnout in the polling station was overstated? In 4 unprecedented PECs in this respect, the voter turnout in PECs was overestimated by 57% (PEC №144), 53% (PEC №145), 52% (PEC №163) and 51% (PEC № 194).

The number of observed facts of ballot-stuffing. In 2 PECs where these falsifications took place at the largest scale, we observed 50 (PEC №194) and 13 (PEC №163) cases of ballot stuffing.

The number of observed facts of multiple voting. In 1 PEC where these falsifications took place at the largest scale, we observed 50 (PEC №194) cases of multiple voting.