Moscow prosecutors have warned the leadership of Russia’s independent election monitoring group Golos not to disclose any results of the March 4 presidential elections until all polling stations have closed.
On March 4, Golos observers will send text messages with the results of the voting at their individual polling stations to Golos headquarters, which plans to publish those messages on the internet in real time.
However, election laws forbid publication of results before polling stations close.
Golos, which casts itself as the only organization that can ensure independent election monitoring, claims to have come under mounting government-orchestrated pressure aimed at discrediting it and its findings.
Golos Deputy Chief Grigory Melikonyants accused prosecutors of ‘double standards,’ saying that presidential frontrunner Vladimir Putin has a corps of election observers who will also disclose the results of the vote in real time mode through March 4, but no one has given them a warning.
“They [prosecutors] are trying to restrain Russian citizens and organizations from disseminating information,” Melikonyants told Gazeta.ru online paper.
Five candidates – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist LDPR party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia party leader Sergei Mironov and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov – will compete for Russia’s presidency in the March 4 vote.
