Electoral Fraud In Russia

EDM number 961 in 1995-96, proposed by Ken Livingstone on 06/06/1996.

That this House notes with alarm the statement by Russian Defence Minister, General Pavel Grachev, that, although the first round of the presidential election does not take place till 16th June, 557 sailors have voted 'in the presence of journalists and observers' and that a count of their votes revealed that they 'had voted unanimously for Boris Yeltsin' and given that the chance of any 557 voters being unanimous in an election with so many candidates to choose from is only one in several million, recognises that this is clear evidence of the same sort of ballot rigging as was so widespread in the 1993 and 1995 Duma elections, and lends credence to the widespread fear that Boris Yeltsin's vote will be fraudulently increased by between 10 and 15 per cent.; further notes that Yeltsin's supporters in the Upper House of the Russian Parliament have blocked a proposal to increase the number of independent observers at the 90,000 polling stations; and calls on Her Majesty's Government to protest at this dangerous undermining of Russia's infant democracy.

This motion has been signed by a total of 14 MPs.