Page 7 - RusRPTAug20
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2.0 Politics
2.1 Evidence of massive vote rigging in the referendum on
constitutional changes emerged
Evidence of massive ballot stuffing emerged in a mathematician Facebook post of a statistical study of the voting results in the referendum on constitutional changes that would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036.
As bne IntelliNews reported before the vote began that Russian statistician Sergey Shpilkin has made a name for himself by highlighting vote rigging in past elections in Russia by studying the mathematical distribution patterns. Shpilkin found serious discrepancies in the number of people that had registered to vote online, even before the polls were opened.
Russia's new constitutional amendments passed with 77.92% of votes in favour and 22.27% against. Both turnout and popular support for the amendments to the constitution were higher than when Russians voted to adopt the current Constitution itself in 1993.
Once again, Russia's highest numbers were reported in Chechnya, where 97.92% of voters supported the amendments amid turnout of 95.14%. Federal election officials initially reported a "protest vote" in the Komi Republic, but the results later reversed as more ballots were counted.
The voting in Russia's constitutional plebiscite fell short of both Russian and international standards, says the independent watchdog "Golos."
7 RUSSIA Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com
