Penza, 13 September 2015. PenzaNews. The Penza region gubernatorial election, as well as special elections of deputies for local government bodies of several municipalities, were free of any violations, the regional coordinator of “For Clean Election” Darya Stepanova informed PenzaNews agency immediately after 20.00 of Sunday, September 13, when the polling stations closed.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

The election was “very calm and cultured” with “no provocations,” she said.

“The representative supervisors from our body were not just from the Law faculty. We encompassed almost all faculties [of the Penza State University]. These include the Economy faculty and the History faculty, we even have some technical specialty majors, but, of course, the Law students are the majority,” the speaker clarified.

The gender composition of the supervision body staff was nearly equal, Darya Stepanova added.

“We began recruiting them early, somewhere around April or May, and then held trainings with them,” said the coordinator of “For Clean Election.”

The activists attended a course of lectures, she noted.

“These were dedicated to the things an election supervisor must pay attention to. We brought them together in September once again to recapitulate the theory using the Center of Election Rights and Process. We tried to teach them using both our experience and the theoretical knowledge,” Darya Stepanova explained.

The studies were held by the PSU professors and the former election supervisors, she pointed out.

“The guys have been working on polling stations for the whole day. We changed shifts in the HQ – to visit some supervisors, help them, or cast the votes ourselves,” the coordinator said.

The young people were trying to take an unorthodox approach to their work, Darya Stepanova explained.

“They are trying to find something interesting. Some are filming the performances at the polling stations, a lot publish their selfies and photos. Our guys even made photos with [the ex-governor of the Penza region] Vasily Bochkarev,” she noted.

The supervision body representatives tried to cover as many election areas outside the city as well, the activist added.

“We tried to cover all areas, even though it’s patchy. Not in full, of course. The people there were those who live in those areas. It’s far easier this way – they vote where they work, and it’s a short walk home for them,” the speaker said.

The organizers of the headquarters tried to show the students “the inner workings of the election,” she stressed.

According to Darya Stepanova, the election supervisors will remain at polling stations until the end of the counting procedures, after which they will begin sending the photos of complete protocols back to the headquarters.

“We will have our own independent vote count after that,” the regional coordinator of “For Clean Election” concluded.

As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, September 13 was the day of the Penza region gubernatorial election, as well as special elections of deputies for local government bodies of several municipalities.

All 1,105 polling stations in the Penza region for the gubernatorial election opened at 8.00 and were protected by some 1,500 police officers.

All five officially registered candidates – Ivan Belozertsev (United Russia), Vladimir Simagin (CPRF), Zhigansha Tuktarov (LDPR), Vladimir Popkov (“Rodina”) and Gennady Yeroshin (“A Just Russia”) – have cast their votes in their voting areas before 12.00.

Among the people who did the same before noon are the chairman of the Penza region Legislative Assembly Valery Lidin, the Penza city head Victor Kuvaytsev, the State Duma deputy Igor Rudensky, the former governor Vasily Bochkarev, and the first chairman of the CPRF regional committee, regional Legislative Assembly deputy Georgy Kamnev.

The electoral lists of the Penza region includes a total of 1,085,392 persons.

The previous public gubernatorial election in the Penza region were held in 2002, 13 years ago, when Vasily Bochkarev won the vote and went over for the second term, leaving behind his closest competitor Victor Ilyukhin, State Duma deputy for the Communist Party.