The study, conducted by the independent observer project Atlas of Elections, found that about 30% of regional election commission members are salaried staff working in the commissions on a permanent basis. A further 17% are officials, and 13% are managers and employees of state-funded institutions.
"This was clearly evident during the current election campaign and partly explains why election commissions, managed by their leadership, readily went along with removing the Yabloko party and its candidates from the elections, and some candidates from the Communist Party, and demonstrated a special attitude toward other unapproved candidates," the researchers said.
The Dagestan election commission was named the most administratively dependent, with state employees and officials accounting for 12 of its 14 members. Ten state employees each sit on the commissions of Buryatia, Stavropol, and the Leningrad, Ulyanovsk, Bryansk, Astrakhan, Kurgan, Sakhalin, Smolensk, Tomsk and Jewish Autonomous regions, as well as the Khabarovsk and Transbaikal territories.
Verstka reported that ahead of the State Duma elections, civil servants are being trained to "defend the results" of the vote through social media posts. The relevant lecture has been posted on the Znanie portal. Officials are advised to write about compliance with election procedures on the first day of voting. The lecture identifies "fakes about falsifications" and "unofficial vote-counting systems" as threats.
The State Duma elections are scheduled for September 18-20. The anti-war Yabloko party and nearly 40 opposition candidates have previously been removed from the ballot.