Polling stations in southern Russia close amid reports of irregularities

Voting has ended at polling stations located in the south of Russia, voters were choosing governors, city and district council deputies. During the first two days of the elections, the turnout in the gubernatorial elections in Kuban and Rostov Oblast was higher than in the municipal elections, and multiple violations were also recorded there.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, municipal elections are taking place in the south of Russia from September 12 to 14, in Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, voting is taking place in parallel with the gubernatorial elections. Candidates and parties reported ballot stuffing and falsifications during home voting.

At 20:00 Moscow time, polling stations in the regions of southern Russia, where elections of various levels were held, closed, according to reports from the regional election commissions.

Doctor of Political Science, one of the founders of the Center for Research on Political Culture of Russia Sergei Obukhov analyzed the results of two days of elections.

The average turnout in the gubernatorial elections in Russia was 37.12%. Regions in the south of Russia showed a higher turnout - in the Rostov region - 43.75% of voters, in Kuban - 53.61.

Makhachkala became a leader in Russia in the number of voters who voted in two days in the elections of deputies of city assemblies of regional capitals - 52.83% in Rostov-on-Don the turnout was 28.97%, in Krasnodar - 28.55% in Astrakhan - 16.77%.

Among the typical violations, the analyst singled out mass bribery of voters, in particular citing the Krasnodar region as an example, manipulations with portable ballot boxes and home voting were also noted there: refusal to allow observers, voting for the dead, discrepancies between signatures and ballots, and interference in the work of commissions. In the Rostov Region, ballot stuffing, discrepancies between the lists and the data in the GAS "Elections", and night-time manipulations with ballot boxes were recorded. "The violations are systemic in nature and are not isolated cases. The most serious violations were recorded in the Krasnodar Territory," he said.

In the Rostov Region, at polling station 2018 in the Sovetsky District of the city of Rostov-on-Don, following the results of the vote on September 13, the figure of 275 people was announced, transmitting this information to the GAS "Elections" system, however, according to observers, there were 200 fewer at the station. The chairman of the commission could not explain why the figures differed by 200 people. According to observers, the chairperson tried to give a member of the precinct election commission an envelope with banknotes to correct the error. A statement was filed with the police and the FSB regarding an attempt to give a bribe, the Rostov regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation reported on its Telegram channel.

In Anapa, at polling station 2018, when voter Ekaterina Evgenyevna came to vote, it turned out that someone had already signed for her. This is a clear sign of fraud at this polling station, blogger Max Anapskii reported on his Telegram channel.

The "Caucasian Knot" publishes materials about these elections on the page "Elections-2025: South of Russia".