The Central Election Commission met the demands of our candidates, who withdrew from the election yesterday in protest, and canceled the election in Barvikha.
This decision is unprecedented. For the first time, the Central Election Commission has complied with the political demands of the opposition, acting in accordance with the spirit of the law rather than its letter (strictly speaking, they could have given the usual response: these are municipal elections, we cannot cancel them. Pamfilova said something along those lines as recently as yesterday.
What happened shows that our candidates did absolutely the right thing yesterday. It was not an easy decision: for several weeks, people had been going door to door with volunteers, providing legal consultations, and launching court cases over housing and utilities issues. A great deal of difficult work had been done, money had been raised, and there was support from voters. And then to simply withdraw like that. Everyone had the same thought: what if we somehow broke through?
But that thought—the desire to preserve one’s personal investment—had to be pushed aside for the sake of the common cause. It was impossible to take part in this clown show. The politically correct move was to demand that the election be canceled—something no one but us believed in as recently as yesterday—and that is exactly what the guys did.
There are no genuinely fair elections in Russia at all. Even so, you can still try to take part in elections where campaigning is unequal. You can try to take part in elections where criminal cases are fabricated against you. You can try to take part in elections where you are smeared by tabloid hit pieces, and so on.
But at some point, a final red line has to be drawn. It is IMPOSSIBLE AND POLITICALLY UNACCEPTABLE to take part in a procedure like this—or even call it an “election”—when 40% of the ballots have already been stuffed before voting day. When actual voters have been replaced by migrants who were issued Russian passports the day before and all registered at the same address.
No “we have to go all the way and see what happens.” Only a clear political position and a clear political demand.
That is exactly what was done: we withdrew, demanded the cancellation of the election, and called for the resignation of CEC head Ella Pamfilova if that demand was not heard.
We did it, and we got our way. Yes, in a tiny local election. But no one had achieved even this before, even though the lawlessness had often been worse.
And if we had not withdrawn, if we had stayed in that circus, today the CEC’s decision would have been to “forward the complaints to the prosecutor’s office and review the response in 30 days,” and this weekend, after the vote, we would have been treated to our “favorite” debate: did the opposition finish last because of fraud, or because the people do not support them.
I congratulate and thank everyone who supported us yesterday. I congratulate the guys who showed principle yesterday, who gave up personal interests for the common cause, and who won.
Many people are asking whether I now think Ella Pamfilova is better than Churov (Vladimir Churov, the former head of Russia’s Central Election Commission).
Answer:
As of this very second—yes. But going forward, we will have to watch and reassess it each time.
Things will only get harder from here. We still have many unfair elections and dirty, underhanded tricks ahead of us. Just thirty minutes ago, a court fined Lyaskin for a picket he did not even take part in.
Many people are right to say now: they gave in to your pressure on a small matter, but they will make up for it on a larger scale, under the guise of “look how honest we are—we canceled the election in Barvikha”.
That is true, and any attempt at electoral struggle will be costly, difficult, and not very effective. But we will keep fighting.
The main thing is not to deceive ourselves, not to play along, and not to try to be clever. We must take an honest and principled political position.