Penza, 29 August 2015. PenzaNews. Nikolai Taktarov, chairman of the Penza region election committee, ignores his flaws in the work of the committee but eagerly seeks to serve the current authorities, claims the press release of the youth civil organization “Modern Age Generation” signed by Pavel Barabanschikov received by PenzaNews agency on Saturday, August 29.

According to the activists, the Penza region election committee under the 12-year leadership of Nikolai Taktarov became “an appendage of the regional government and the ‘ruling party’ instead of the guarantor of democratic freedoms.”

“Our opinion is that the candidate [for the gubernatorial election] Alexander Frolenkov was weeded away on orders from the [Penza region] government. The election committee chose to remain silent,” reads the text of the New Age Generation press service that became a reply to the commentary of the regional election committee on the call to boycott the September 13 elections, published by PenzaNews agency recently.

The press release lists the vote protocol discrepancies at the election point No. 13 (Penza school No. 68) during the September 14, 2014 City Duma election as an example of such inaction of the regional election committee.

In particular, Pavel Barabanschikov claims he still has a voting ballot from that election, complete with the stamp and two signatures of the regional election committee, that he had taken home following the New Age Generation boycott scheme that urges citizens to put empty sheets of paper into ballot boxes.

According to the author of the press release, when he visited the “Election” service webpage several days after the election, he found that the absence of his voting ballot was not reflected in the protocol and the committee members “simply changed the figures.”

“If we add the lines 2a (‘Early voting ballots given out’) and 3 (‘Voting day ballots given’), we get a figure of 545 (121 + 424), which is reflected in the line 7 (‘Voting ballots in ballot boxes’). It is important to recall that the early voting ballots are added to ballot boxes on the voting day, and so the sum of figures in 2a and 3 must equal the figure in 7 – as long as nobody takes any ballots away. If the election committee had worked honestly, the line 7 (‘Voting ballots in ballot boxes’) would feature a figure of 544, not 545, and the single-ballot change would reflect this ‘keepsake’ ballot taken away. As for the line 9a (‘Voting ballots lost’), it reflects the number of ballots lost by the election committee itself. For example, if the committee receives 100 ballots but only ends up with 98, 2 must be listed as lost. However, even here the committee may undertake various schemes with figures, especially with the lack of thorough supervision. But the regional election committee did not look into the discrepancies in the protocol from the voting point No. 13,” Pavel Barabanschikov writes.

He also reminds that the September 13 Penza region gubernatorial election will not feature early voting but allow absentee voting.

“So both the Ballots Given and Ballots in Ballot Boxes figures must be checked,” the activist stresses.

As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, the youth civil organization “Modern Age Generation” asked the local media on August 20 to distribute a call for the boycott of the Penza region gubernatorial election scheduled for September 13.

In particular, the activists ask the citizens to come to the election points, receive their ballots and then take them away “as keepsakes,” instead putting empty sheets of paper prepared in advance and “folded in away to at least somewhat resemble a voting ballot” to the ballot boxes.