Penza, 4 March 2015. PenzaNews. The Zheleznodorozhny area court of Penza city accepted Lyudmila Kolomytseva’s decision to abandon her previous complaint to cancel the results of the elections to the City Duma of the sixth convocation in the district No. 7 and stop the proceedings on the case.

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Among the people present at the court session on Wednesday, March 4, were representatives of the regional, city and territorial election committees, the United Russia party, and the candidates.

The session began with the judge Gulnara Irtuganova hearing out Lyudmila Kolomytseva.

“A vote recount for the polling stations No. 32-33 was held on February 12. During the recount, the district election committee No. 33 made illegal decisions on deeming certain voting ballots valid, thus keeping the election results untouched. However, if the district election committee were to make the decision on the aforementioned voting ballots following the current legislation, the vote recount results and the election outcome as a whole would change,” Lyudmila Kolomytseva said.

Because of this, according to her, she sent a request to the Oktyabrsky area court of Penza city to amend the protocol of the area election committee No. 33 based on the vote recount: if fulfilled, this decision will lead to a change of election results in the whole city district.

Since her strategy to defend her rights has changed, the earlier complaint is moot, Lyudmila Kolomytseva explained.

“I am abandoning my earlier demands to cancel the decision of the city election committee on election results,” she concluded.

After hearing out the involved sides who did not object to shutting down the proceeding, the judge recessed for deliberation, and later on announced her decision.

“Following the articles 39, 173, 220, 221, 225 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure, the court held that Lyudmila Kolomytseva’s decision to abandon her claim be granted, the proceedings on the case […] on canceling the decision of the Penza city election committee on the results of the elections to the Penza City Duma of the sixth convocation on the single-mandate election district No. 7 be stopped,” Gulnara Irtuganova said.

After the court session, Lyudmila Kolomytseva told PenzaNews reporter about her plan of action.

“A talk will be held at the Oktyabrsky area court of Penza on March 11. The judge will be Natalya Polovinko. I am not demanding one more recount. All was recounted as it is. I see legal basis and demand to deem three voting ballots void,” the speaker elaborated.

According to her, she is speaking about the three voting ballots that were deemed void during the vote recount at the polling station No. 33.

“Two of them have two marks, and one bears non-standard design and an odd stamp. If the court finds our basis lawful and deems the papers void, Zhuravlev will have -3 [votes]. So the overall election outcome in the district can change,” Lyudmila Kolomytseva concluded.

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.