In May, the Election Commission of Orenburg Oblast was formed, with key posts taken by members of the United Russia executive committee: Yevgenia Ivleva was re-elected as chair, and Eleonora Kuchinskaya, head of the Leninsky District TEC, became her deputy. The latter is linked to fraud in the elections to the Vesenny village council, where the opposition sought a manual recount through the courts. But let’s take things in order.
Background
Elections in the Vesenny rural settlement have been marred by scandal before.
The Vesenny village council was partially formed back in September last year. At that time, the TEC of Orenburgsky District cancelled the election results in single-mandate districts No. 8, No. 9 and No. 10, citing the fact that the violations committed made it impossible to determine the results of the voters’ will. The regional branch of the Communist Party (CPRF) then published a statement asserting that the cancellation was due to 50 “extra” ballots found in a ballot box.
After the election results were cancelled in September, the leadership of the PECs involved — No. 1190 and No. 1199 — was replaced: the chairs and their deputies here were appointed from among members of city commissions.
When four more elected deputies from United Russia resigned their mandates, the number of vacant seats reached seven. In the by-elections held on 19 April, all of them went to United Russia candidates.
However, the CPRF candidate in district No. 2, Yevgeny Storozhenko, filed an administrative lawsuit with the Orenburgsky District Court demanding that the voting results be annulled and a manual recount conducted.
The substance of the complaints and Kuchinskaya’s role
The point is that, before drawing up the voting results protocol, the chair of PEC No. 1199, Adelya Astashova, concealed the voting results data printed out by the electronic ballot scanner (KOIB) from observers and candidates. In response to the demand that these be read out, Astashova summoned to the commission Eleonora Kuchinskaya, the chair of the Leninsky District TEC and, simultaneously, a staff member of the apparatus of the Election Commission of Orenburg Oblast. The commission organising the elections, however, was the TEC of Orenburgsky District.
Kuchinskaya began to actively interfere in the commission’s work, issuing instructions to its members, usurping the chair and secretary, taking documents from the table without permission, examining them and carrying out certain manipulations.
Observers submitted a written complaint demanding a manual recount of votes (because the KOIB had not announced the results). The complaint was supported by all the candidates present.
However, as stated in the lawsuit, at the final PEC meeting this complaint was not considered. No decision was taken on it, and no copy was handed to the observer. The complaint was examined only at the level of the TEC of Orenburgsky District — which is a direct violation of the law.
Moreover, when the voting results protocol for district No. 2 was drawn up, two errors were made at once. The protocol lacked a date and time. In addition, it was not signed by all members of the commission, yet the document contains no record of who was absent and why.
TEC member Dmitry Urmancheyev submitted a dissenting opinion in which he explicitly pointed to the need for a repeat manual recount of votes. Furthermore, 31 voters who had cast their ballots for Storozhenko signed a collective appeal to the Investigative Committee demanding that the violations and the fact that the results were distorted be investigated.
Nevertheless, the court concluded that violations of electoral rights had not been proven, and that the circumstances of the case gave no grounds to doubt the voting results. Yevgeny Storozhenko’s claim was dismissed.
From the executive committee to the regional election commission
The whole story gained publicity thanks to a session of the Legislative Assembly of Orenburg Oblast, at which candidates for the new composition of the regional election commission were considered — among them the already mentioned Eleonora Kuchinskaya.
In light of the fact that Kuchinskaya found herself at the epicentre of a scandal and court proceedings, eight deputies voted against including her in the commission. However, the votes of the United Russia deputies predictably proved decisive.
And here it is worth noting that Eleonora Kuchinskaya has a direct connection to that party. In 2022, she was nominated to the Leninsky TEC of Orenburg precisely by United Russia, and immediately became its chair. And earlier, in 2020, when the current chair of the Election Commission of Orenburg Oblast, Yevgenia Ivleva, was serving as acting head of the executive committee of the United Russia regional branch, Kuchinskaya held the post of her first deputy.
In May, Eleonora Kuchinskaya once again became her ally’s deputy — this time within the regional election commission. Thus, the Election Commission of Orenburg Oblast is now headed by the former top officials of the United Russia executive committee.