According to YABLOKO’s observers, YABLOKO – United Democrats obtained 14 per cent at the Moscow City Duma election.

“We obtained data from 80 per cent of our observers who were present at 92% of the polling stations. Our results are 14.3 per cent,” told YABLOKO’s leader Grigory Yavlinsky to the journalists at a briefing devoted to the preliminary results of the voting and held at YABLOKO’s electoral head-quarters on Sunday.

Commenting counting of the votes Yavlinsky expressed his astonishment that in two hours after the end of voting only 2 per cent of votes were counted, according to the official data. “Such situation is very strange,” said Yavlinsky.

He also noted that YABLOKO’s observers fixed multiple violations at the election.

Nikita Belykh, Head of the Federal Political Council of the SPS, in his turn said (replying on a request to comment on the figures given by Yavlinsky) “We have won. YABLOKO – United Democrats gained 14 per cent. All other figures that will be given by other information sources are fraud.”

According to Belykh, they will not neglect the violations despite the official results of the election. “All the violations that we have fixed during voting will be pursued – we shall go to courts. No one will escape liability,” said Belykh.

He did not give a direct answer on the question whether the united democrats can try and organise mass-scale protest actions in case if, according to the official results of the voting, they don’t get into the Moscow Duma and are not able to argue this decision in court.

“We are constitutional parties, and don’t violate the law. But once again I should stress that no one shall escape liability,” said Belych.

Grigory Yavlinsky in his turn commenting the election campaign said that YABLOKO – United Democrats struggled in uneven conditions. “If the competitors were in equal positions in the campaign – simply fair, with debates and equal opportunities to use the financial resource, we would have won even against the United Russia,” said YABLOKO’s leader.

He also noted that high percentage of the CPRF may be connected with the fact that [the Moscow City Court] had cancelled the registration of Rodina (Motherland), and its voters voted for the communists. “The CPRF is an affiliate of the United Russia. They had to weaken the CPRF before the Duma election in 2003, thus they artificially created Rodina, and part of the electorate voted for Rodina. Now Rodina has become very active and it was taken away from the election, therefore the CPRF got a better result,” said Yavlinsky.

Answering the journalists’ questions both the leaders confirmed that after the Moscow City Duma election they would like to continue working over creation of a united party. “Two questions are of principle importance for us here: coordination of our positions as regards Vladimir Putin and United Russia, as well as development of a joint programme. If we find common grounds here, all the other questions will be solved in compliance with the law and the results of sociological polls,” noted Yavlinsky.

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Translated by Olga Radayeva