Penza, 12 February 2015. PenzaNews. The vote recount procedure for the polling station. No. 32 of the district No. 7 after the court has cancelled the results of the election to the City Duma of the sixth convocation earlier for it, began in the Oktyabrsky area building on Thursday, February 12, at approximately 10.40 am.

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The process is led by the chairman of the district election committee No. 32 Olga Tchub, reports the PenzaNews journalist from the meeting hall.

The event is also attended by members of district election committees No. 32-33; a representative of the election committee, deputy chairman Alexei Klimukhin; the member of the regional election committee Galina Surkova; and a video operator recording the process.

Among others present in the meeting hall are the area election committee Olga Sorokina, members of the city election committee, and voting members of the district election committee.

The location also has reserved seats for the candidates and their trustees by the work table, with observers seated behind them.

However, only Lyudmila Kolomytseva is present out of the district candidates, along with her attorney Vyacheslav Rusanov as an observer who is monitoring the process along with his defendant.

At the same time, the United Russia deputy candidate Vasily Zhuravlev is represented by Alexander Patz, while Vasily Zhuravlev himself was spotted by the journalists in the Oktyabrsky area administration building, which is why several reporters rumored he may replace his trustee to observe the process on his own.

Before the start, Olga Sorokina said Lyudmika Kolomytseva has submitted a complaint on seating: after reviewing it, the area election committee has decided on relocating the places to bring them closer to the table.

The voting ballot box tightly taped with scotch tape caused questions. When Olga Tchub started unpacking it, Lyudmila Kolomytseva noted one of the official stamps on the box, supposedly a stamp of the Oktyabrsky area court of Penza city, is blurred, which the candidate found unacceptable.

Afterwards, the box was unpacked, and stacks of voting ballots, each in brown paper, were put out of it.

The count began with 1,687 stamped ballots.

Among them were also void ballots for Vasily Zhuravlev of United Russia, self-promoted Lyudmila Kolomytseva, Anton Ischenko from LDPR, and Timur Yusupov from the Russian Party of People’s Government, which will be recounted afterwards.

Lyudmila Kolomytseva first observed the process from her seat, later approaching the table on her own.

Yuri Voblikov, a human rights activist present in the area, interrupts the process with his comments, attracting deriding notes.

It is unknown how much time the procedure will take: supposedly, it should last at least two hours.

After the vote recount for the polling station No. 32 the committee will begin working on the ballots in the polling station No. 33 that were also subject to the procedure under court order. 

As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, Monday, September 15, it became known that Penza Election Commission sent a request to the court for a partial cancellation of the voting in district No.7 — they questioned the validity of the ballots.

According to the regional election committee, in district No. 7 the votes are distributed as follows: Vasily Zhuravlev (United Russia) — 46,59%, Lyudmila Kolomytseva (self-nominated) — 46,52%, Anton Ishchenko (LDPR) — 2,15% and Timur Yusupov (Russian Party of National Control) — 1,64%.

The difference between the two closest rivals made only two voices: Vasily Zhuravlev received 1,453 ballots, Lyudmila Kolomytseva — 1,451.

Later it was reported that Lyudmila Kolomytseva expressed disagreement with the results of the vote counting at two polling stations and also sent a petition to the court.

During the meeting held on Friday, September 19, it was decided to combine the claims for co-production of one civil case.

On September 22, Oktyabrsky district court of Penza annulled election results to the City Duma of the sixth convocation at the polling stations No. 32 and No. 33, and ordered a recount.

On October 22, the first tier court decision on the case of Vasily Zhuravlev and United Russia party were countered.

On December 11, the court commission on administrative cases reviewed the complaints as well as a request from Elena Kosolapova, a person unrelated to the case. They disagreed with the decision of the Oktyabrsky regional court. All three complaints were left unsatisfied.

Moreover, the court discussion denied the decision of the city election committee to set the date of vote recount for the polling stations No. 32 and No. 33 of the district No. 7.

On December 25, Lyudmila Kolomytseva said the Penza region election committee attempts to delay the recount because they do not want to touch the election lists.