The Russian journalist who filmed
himself taking part in vote-rigging to prove that the country's State
Duma elections were unfair has been charged with electoral fraud.
Denis Korotkov, a correspondent for St. Petersburg-based site Fontanka.ru, was arrested on charges of “illegally obtaining a ballot.”
He took part in a vote rigging technique known as “carousel voting,” allowing him to cast two separate votes in two separate polling stations. Those who took part were paid for their work, and were made to take photographs of their ballots to ensure they had voted for members of the ruling United Russia party, Fontanka reported. Korotkov received the extra ballots after showing election officials at certain polling stations a sticker which had been placed in his passport, the outlet wrote.
No other arrests have been made in relation to the vote-rigging scheme, Fontanka reported.
Elections for Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, saw a long-expected landslide victory for United Russia on Sunday, Sept 18.
The head of Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, said that the vote had been “open and transparent,” but admitted that it had not gone far enough to regain the trust of the Russian people.
Independent election monitors have declared that the State Duma vote was “far from free and fair.”
More than 30 criminal cases have been opened into suspected electoral violations, while votes from nine separate polling stations have been annulled following reports of rigged voting.
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