‘Golos’ calls for open access to surveillance videos

by Natalya Tikhonova

The movement ‘Golos’ calls for open access to surveillance videos recorded on the Election Day across the country. This would help to detect fraud and bring perpetrators to justice.

On September 18, surveillance cameras recorded activities at the polling stations of 15 regions. In addition, the government has allocated 120 million rubles for the installation of cameras in 13 cities with a population of 1 million inhabitants or more. Thus, the video surveillance was installed in locations with approx. 37 million voters. However, in most regions it is extremely difficult to get those video surveillance records.

In late summer, CEC adopted a resolution authorizing regional government to establish the procedure for access to the video surveillance content. Many election commissions took advantage of the transfer of power, therefore, a request for the video records must be justified, proving the action (inaction) or decisions of the respective election commission violated voter’s rights. The video records from the capital polling stations appeared to be among the almost inaccessible.

Moscow

The resolution of Moscow election commission stipulates that the video records are available upon request of electoral process actors, whose rights have been violated.

Therefore, citizen observers were denied access to the records. By now, all such requests were rejected.

Republic of Tatarstan

Numerous violations were detected at polling stations, from which observers got the video records. The coalition ‘For fair elections’ managed to get the video records from the polling stations in Tatarstan. The volunteers watched the videos and found evidence of ballot stuffing in PECs No. 174 and No. 411 in Kazan. The Tatarstan Election Commission informed the media that it addressed the issue to the Prosecutor General to investigate the findings.

A significant share of video records remains unscrutinized. If you are ready to join the investigation, contact the project coordinator Azat Gabdulvaleev by e-mail: [email protected].

St. Petersburg

The representatives of Project ‘Prosta Vibori’ managed to get the video footage from PECs in Central, Vasileostrovsky and Krasnoselsky districts of St. Petersburg. They need volunteers to scrutinize the video content. It is noteworthy that the regional commission has provided the records split up into one minute long files.

Moscow region

In Moscow region, conflict of laws concerning the access to videos arose. The Election Commission of Moscow region has not adopted a resolution on access to the video surveillance content. Therefore, the 2012 CEC General procedure for access to the video surveillance content should be applied in this case. Though the responsibility to provide access to such videos rests with the Ministry of Communications, the executive avoids its functions, shifting responsibility to regional authorities.

In addition, ‘Golos’ experts did not manage to find any decision on access to video surveillance content from polling stations in Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd regions.

‘Golos’ emphasizes that the terms of storage of those video records is too short for proper scrutiny. The volunteer Alex Alpatov prepared a review of legal framework on video surveillance (table below summarizes the terms of video storage). The longest term - one year - is provisioned in St. Petersburg, Vologda and Yaroslavl regions. The shortest term of three months - in the capital and the Republic of Tatarstan.

Term of storage / access to video content