The Communist Party has turned to the European Court of Human Rights to contest the results of the 2011 Duma elections in the republic of Mordovia, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
The head of the party's legal department, Vadim Solovyev, told Kommersant daily that by challenging the election results in a single region instead of the whole country, the party believes the court is more likely to satisfy the complaint.
The party also hopes to contest countrywide election results if the results in Mordovia are thrown out.
In 2011, the Strasbourg court dismissed the complaint of a group of political parties and individuals — including the Communists, Yabloko, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Irina Khakamada — contesting 2003 Duma elections.
In its ruling at that time, the court said "the state did not fail to meet its obligation to ensure a free election."
In 2011, the ruling United Russia party achieved one of its best results across the country in Mordovia: 91.6 percent. The Communists won 4.5 percent of the vote.
Solovyev said the election result was manipulated with the help of fraud, illegal agitation and students being forced to vote. The party also said its results in the neighboring regions were 4-5 times higher than in Mordovia.
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