CEC head does not doubt Kozhemyako's victory in Primorye election
MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The violations in the rerun gubernatorial election in the Primorye Territory reported by the Golos election-monitoring movement will have no effect on the ballot results, according to which acting Governor Oleg Kozhemyako gained over 60% of the vote, even if they are confirmed, Central Elections Commission (CEC) Chairperson Ella Pamfilova said.
"Even if something is wrong with the [polling] stations where [violations] have been alleged and if [their voting results] are excluded from the total count, that will have no effect on the final results, and he [Kozhemyako] will still get over 60% of the vote," Pamfilova told the press on Wednesday.
"There is no point in speaking about those elections, we should think about the future. If such a problem exists, we should deal with it and avoid an erosion of confidence," Pamfilova said.
A meeting with Golos has taken place, she said.
"We shall find out how that [happened] and prevent the abnormal situation with KOIBs [electronic voting machines] from happening in future elections," she said.
"We were also surprised to hear that the situation involved KOIBs made in 2010, that something happened in a number of cases," Pamfilova said.
According to her, Golos submitted materials for eight polling stations only and there was nothing but "assumptions" about the rest, she said.
Oleg Kozhemyako won the rerun election in the Primorye Territory on December 16 with 61.88% of the vote.
The voter turnout stood at 46.35% or more than 680,000.
The rerun election took place after results of the two rounds held on September 9 and 16 were cancelled due to voting violations.