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Viewing cable 09STPETERSBURG73, DISPUTED ST. PETERSBURG MUNICIPAL ELECTION SEAT SAGA

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09STPETERSBURG73 2009-06-16 13:24 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate St Petersburg
R 161324Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2782
INFO AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 
AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 
AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG
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