Russia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has ordered local authorities to annul election results from Barvikha in the Moscow region, the RBC news agency reported Wednesday.
Four opposition candidates from Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund had earlier withdrawn from the Barvikha elections following alleged voting violations.
CEC members unanimously voted to approve a decree forcing the Odintsovsky regional government to “immediately overturn” the decisions of the Barvikha electoral committee, RBC reported.
CEC chairman Ella Pamfilova said that the decision was made due to apparent violations during early voting.
The results should be overturned by regional authorities no later than Thursday, she told the Interfax news agency. Further rounds of voting will take place in the next six months, but a date is yet to be set.
Opposition activists had claimed that a large number of young people from outside Barvikha were brought to the town in order to vote.
“What's the point of participating if election day has not yet come and 30 percent of votes have been falsified?” Navalny wrote on his blog Tuesday.
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