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http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2003/12/08/011.htmlMonday, Dec. 8, 2003. Page 03
Complaints of Fraud And Ballot Stuffing
By Catherine Belton and Timur Aliev
Special to The Moscow Times From suspected vote rigging in Chechnya and alleged stuffed ballot boxes in Kirov to disappearing election committee stamps in Tuva, observers from opposition parties said a slew of violations tarnished the elections Sunday.
The head of the Communist Party's legal department, Vadim Solovyov, said the party's team of 200,000 observers had toted up a litany of apparently fraudulent voting schemes and had passed on its evidence to international monitors. He said the party had called on prosecutors to open criminal investigations into several alleged violations.
But Central Elections Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov said the vote appeared to have passed "without excesses," while independent monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe still faced a check of ballots through the night and were saving their conclusions for a news conference Monday.
In Chechnya, some observers claimed ballot stuffing doubled voter turnout to more than 70 percent.
"At this polling station only 200 people voted, or about 10 percent," said Ruslan Khadashev, an observer for single-mandate independent candidate Salambek Maigov. "I don't know where they got 70 percent from."
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related links...
Reports Confuse Would-Be Voters (Dec. 08, 2003)
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2003/12/08/014.htmlSingular TV Diet on Election Day
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2003/12/08/012.htmlPutin poised to create 'police state'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=257075