DISPUTED ST. PETERSBURG MUNICIPAL ELECTION SEAT SAGA

UNCLAS ST PETERSBURG 000073


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: RS PGOV
SUBJECT: DISPUTED ST. PETERSBURG MUNICIPAL ELECTION SEAT SAGA
CONTINUES

REF: ST. PETERSBURG 54


1. (SBU) Summary: Controversy continues to surround St.
Petersburg's March 1 municipal elections. In the city district
of Morskoy Okrug, a local court cancelled the allegedly forged
final election figures which deprived Yabloko candidate Boris
Vishnevskiy of his apparent victory. But, Vishnevskiy has not
yet secured his seat on the council. The Municipal Election
Commission has decided instead to nullify ALL results in the
five-seat district where Vishnevskiy was running, and hold a new
election. As the other four winners in the disputed district
are members of the United Russia party, it is possible that the
government is ready to sacrifice four party loyalists in order
to keep a single oppositionist out of office - or that it is
confident about winning or ensuring victory in the fifth seat.
End Summary.


2. (SBU) On March 1, Boris Vishnevskiy, a well-known reporter
and member of Yabloko, ran for a seat in the Municipal Council
of Morskoy Okrug in St. Petersburg. Vishnevskiy competed in a
five-seat election district, initially won a slot, and was
issued a copy of the official election protocol confirming the
vote count results and showing his victory. The next morning,
however, Vishnevskiy was shocked to learn that the Municipal
Election Commission had amended the figures and moved him down
the list and into the losers' category. Vishnevskiy was thus
deprived of a municipal seat, and the newly vacant slot was
awarded to United Russia member Anton Chumachenko (reftel).


3. (SBU) Vishnevskiy won a civil case on the matter on May 19.
The court ordered the Municipal Election Commission to recount
votes in Vishnevskiy's district and also to exclude the figures
from one of the six polling stations, as the validity of that
station's results were in doubt. Vishnevskiy's victory in court
thus seemed to open his way to a council seat. The opposition
has stressed that this decision was a rare example of the
government admitting election fraud and agreeing to accept a
legal ruling. Even Chumachenko agreed that there had been
fraud, and that the disputed seat rightly belonged to
Vishnevskiy rather than to him.


4. (SBU) Recent developments in the ongoing affair, however,
have proved that Vishnevskiy may have celebrated prematurely.
Reportedly at the behest of the City Election Commission, the
Municipal Election Commission decided, before recounting the
votes as per the court's instructions, to first reconsider two
previous election result complaints which had originally been
denied. These complaints were filed shortly after the day of
the election by another candidate, Galina Baranova, who
questioned the results from two other polling stations in the
same district.


5. (SBU) The Municipal Election Commission agreed with Baranova,
and ordered a recount of the votes cast in the two polling
stations she disputed. The recount in one of the two stations
unexpectedly added 14 votes to Chumachenko's total, while the
recount of the other polling station's vote turned out to be
impossible as the ballots had been destroyed by a hot water
leak, according to a report from the district administration.


6. (SBU) As a result, the Municipal Election Commission decided
to cancel all of the district's election results, thereby
excluding all five election winners in the district from the
Council due to a requirement in the election law that district
election results be cancelled if the results of more than
twenty-five percent of the polling stations are cancelled (two
polling stations of six were cancelled in this case).


7. (SBU) Vishnevskiy calls this situation a farce, and others
second his opinion. Chumachenko f has said that the fourteen
additional votes recently added to his score appeared out of
nowhere. Vasiliy Barkanov (United Russia),the Chairman of the
Budget Committee of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly,
believes that the ongoing machinations of the Vasileostrovskiy
District Administration, which oversees Morskoy Okrug, are
causing undue expense to the city by forcing yet another
election in the disputed district.


8. (SBU) Vishnevskiy attributes his election troubles to St.
Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's unwillingness to let
him win. He notes that Aleksandr Isayev, the Vasileostrovskiy
District Administrator, is both a member of United Russia and a
political appointee of Governor Matviyenko's. Vishnevskiy will
continue the legal battle for his seat. He also hopes the four
United Russia winners from the disputed district will challenge
the Municipal Election Commission's decision as it annulled
their victories as well.

GWALTNEY