A criminal case has been opened against three polling station officials for vote rigging during this month’s State Duma elections, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced Monday via a statement on its website.
Footage from the polling station, in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, showed a woman frantically stuffing papers into a ballot box as two colleagues shielded her from the view of potential onlookers.
The secretary of the local election commission was on Monday officially accused of putting “no less than 50” falsified ballots into the ballot box while two colleagues “acting on a previously agreed plan” shielded the act from the view of voters and other election officials.
The results from the polling station were annulled the day after the vote and the investigation to establish all circumstances in the case is still ongoing, the statement said.
Russians went to the polls to vote in State Duma elections on Sept. 18 with electoral fraud reported amid a record low official turnout during pro-Putin United Russia Party’s landslide victory.
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