The parties reported violations including sealed ballot boxes being opened, doors to polling stations not being secured overnight, and a refusal to issue paper ballots, reports BritPanorama.
At one polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched.
Issues with electronic voting in Moscow
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, stated that the electronic voting system in Moscow was targeted by cyberattacks, blaming one of the “systemic parties” involved in the vote, though she did not specify which party.
SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet, reported that voters experienced glitches in the electronic registry systems at polling stations across Moscow. Many were not issued paper ballots and were instead asked to vote through electronic terminals, as noted on Telegram.
Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggested the breakdown of the system used to issue paper ballots in Moscow might have been intentional, seeking to steer voters towards electronic voting.
“Demand a paper ballot!” he wrote on X, referring to the situation on Sunday.
Lines formed outside polling stations as numerous voters opted not to vote electronically.
Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov, having urged supporters to spoil party-list ballots, cast his ballot in St. Petersburg, which was covered in bright green writing declaring “For freedom,” “For peace,” and “Yabloko.”
Russian opposition abroad holds protests
Russia’s exiled opposition, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, called on anti-war Russians to cast their votes at noon on Sunday.
