Penza, 12 February 2015. PenzaNews. The results of the vote recount for the polling station No. 32 of district No. 7 have been announced in the Oktyabrsky city area administration on Thursday, February 12. The recount was announced following the cancellation of the results of the election to the City Duma of the sixth convocation.

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The reading of the recount protocol began at approximately 15.15, the PenzaNews journalist reports from the meeting hall, with the whole recount procedure having lasted for over 5 hours since that day’s morning.

Before reading the protocol, Olga Tchub, chairman of the district election committee No. 32, presented the audience the recount results act.

“The results are thus. Zhuravlev: were 272, now 272; Ischenko: were 12, now 12; Kolomytseva: were 201, now 202; Yusupov: were 9, now 9. Void ballots: were 19, now 18. Stamped ballots: were 1,687, now 1,687. All committee members have signed the act, and we will now compose the session result protocol,” she said.

According to her, Lyudmila Kolomytseva gained a single vote thanks to a ballot that had been voided by the Oktyabrsky area court of Penza earlier.

After the protocol was complete, Olga Tchub described it as being based on the read act.

“We have reviewed all the calculations, and found them correct and free of any violations,” she stressed.

Afterwards, the protocol was unanimously approved by the nine members of the district election committee No. 32.

The human rights activist Yuri Voblikov, present at the meeting hall and interrupting the process with his remarks, was removed from the premises by the decision of the district election committee members during the recount process.

Lyudmila Kolomytseva and her representatives submitted four complaints during the procedure.

The first of them was dedicated to seating of those present during the process, while the second one was caused by the voting ballot box. According to the election candidate, one of the official stamps on the box, supposedly a stamp of the Oktyabrsky area court of Penza city, was blurred. She has submitted an official request to preserve the paper sheet with the blurred stamp in the area election committee for later reference: this complaint was later satisfied.

Yet another request was suggesting to unseal the register of voters during the procedure: however, Olga Tchub said the committee has the rights to do so, but has no obligations for it.

The final complaint was dedicated to a voting ballot for Vasily Zhuravlev that had the name of Natalya Kolomitseva, Natalya Kolomytseva’s name-look-alike who had her candidacy withdrawn from the election on September 10, stricken out of the candidates list. This fact suggested the ballot was used during the early voting process, but had no official stamp on the back of the document, instead bearing it on the face side. The complaint was later dismissed, and the vote counted for Vasily Zhuravlev.

An incident occurred during the recount process that may have counted Lyudmila Kolomytseva one vote: on one of the ballots, a voter put a sign in the square by her name and stricken out the names of other candidates with slanted lines, one of those lines partially intersecting Timur Yusupov’s vote mark square.

Due to this, the members of the district election committee wanted to claim the ballot as void, and voted in favor of this decision, but were stopped by Lyudmila Kolomytseva’s emotional reaction, who called to their conscience and asked them to “think again.”

After a heated debate that involved the members of the area and regional election committees, the members of the district election committee decided to count the ballot for Lyudmila Kolomytseva after a discussion and another vote, stating the voter had clearly shown their intentions.

By the end of the procedure and during the announcement, Lyudmila Kolomytseva kept her cool, paying great attention to all formal details.

Vasily Zhuravlev has not yet appeared in the meeting hall where the procedure took place, even though he was spotted in the Oktyabrsky area administration building earlier.

At the moment, the members of the district election committee No. 32 have left the meeting hall.

The recount procedure for the polling station No. 33 of district No. 7 began at 15.50, led by Lyubov Kulyakhtina. As with the polling station No. 32, the results had also been cancelled by the court decision.

As before, the ballot box was unpacked, and voting ballots were distributed into stacks.

The procedure will begin with the 1,543 stamped ballots.