MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. The public movement For Clean Elections has reported a possible vote buying in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in the middle reaches of the Volga River during elections to the Russian State Duma lower parliament house.
"For Clean Elections activists have videoed vote buying. Thus, representatives of an independent rating agency recorded voting by the voters they polled by means of receiving a certain card from them. The scheme was already tested at the elections to the City Duma [legislature] in 2015," the movement said in a press statement.
Activists have referred relevant claims to the police, the prosecutor’s office and the local election commission. "The police have already detained representatives of that organization," the statement said.
In general, according to the For Clean Elections observers who are working in 40 Russian regions, "the situation is calm, polling in proceeding in a regular mode."
Elections to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, are being on September 18 in a split system: 225 members of parliament will be elected by party tickets, while the other 225 are going to be elected in one-seat constituencies. More than 111 million people are eligible to vote in the election and no minimal turnout is required.
Fourteen parties are on the election ballot: the United Russia party, the Communist Party of Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, A Just Russia party, Russia’s Patriots, Civil Platform, the Green party, the Party of Growth, Parnas, Civil Power, Russia’s Communists, Yabloko, Rodina (Motherland) and the Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice. Parties have to pass the five-percent electoral threshold to win seats in the Duma.