Why YABLOKO has expelled 22 members of the St. Petersburg branch
Original text in Russian - http://spb.yabloko.ru/node/1826
On December 8 a bureau of Yabloko party decided to expel a number of members of the St. Petersburg branch who were in its former governing bodies. This decision was difficult and took a long time. But it was necessary.
A different solution would mean that the party, which has always opposed the election fraud, may contain people who are prepared to accept the fraud, if the fraud was made for the benefit of their friends. Or led to the election results, which are more satisfactory for them.
Why the party was forced to take such a decision?
On December 4, 2011, during the elections to the Legislative Assembly YABLOKO received 12.4% of votes and six seats.
In fact, the results above were frauded - according to independent calculations of the voting protocols issued by candidates and observers at the polls, it should have been 13.85%, and seven seats.
It means that one mandate was stolen from YABLOKO after the fraud of electoral commissions while vote counting at night of 4 to 5 December.
The elections were held under the proportional system. Six of these mandates were to go to Grigory Yavlinsky - the leader of the electoral list, and five candidates from YABLOKO in the constituencies, where YABLOKO received the highest number of votes. And by the evening of 5 December, these data have been posted on the website of the city election committee.
However, later during the week the city election committee was not announcing official election results. Why was that happening became clear later: all that time there were "corrections" of the elections results in order to increase the number of seats for the "United Russia" and to change deputies in the future factions - by changing the percentage of votes for parties in different constituencies.
Election results were officially announced only after a week - on the 12th of December. And in a way that changed the composition of the factions: there were other deputies. In particular, the "walk-through" places in the YABLOKO list were occupied by Olga Galkina and Vyacheslav Notyag, who were previously at the bottom of the list (and they did not question this fact at all).
To do this, on the night of 11 to 12 December data with voting results on Galkina's and Notyag's constituencies was changed. Compared with the primary protocols from observers they simply added a significant number of votes in order to increase the percentage of votes for those particular YABLOKO candidates - in one case it was from 14% to 38%, in the other - from 11% to 42%, in the third - from 4% to 53%. It never happened before on any elections that additional votes were added to YABLOKO.
Bureau members of the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO unofficially got to know about a possibility of such fraud on December 11, after which the bureau had an urgent meeting. Most members of the Bureau considered this possibility unlikely and it was not believed. But in the morning on December, 12 the city election committee announced election results with Galkina and Notyag as deputies. After that the Bureau gathered again.
It is very important point. Those plans of the election committee to change the YABLOKO faction could be ripped off simply. It was enough to those, who received parliamentary seats unfairly, to reject them. It did not matter who it was to receive mandates after their resignation - the only essential thing was that Galkina and Notyag had no right to claim those mandates.
If the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO took a common position on this matter and would offer to Galkina and Notyag to resign, the whole situation would develop quite differently. First of all, seeing that common position of the party Galkina and Notyag might have taken a decision to resign. Secondly, there would not be a conflict inside the St. Petersburg organization.
Unfortunately, this did not happen. At the meeting of the St. Petersburg branch on December, 12 a large part of its members advocated that Galkina and Notyag can maintain their mandates. That is, in fact an acknowledgment of the falsification of election results.
YABLOKO party Bureau's decision of 18th of December 2011 considered this position as compliance with the fraud. The Bureau of the Party decided that "members of the party, who became deputies as a result of election frauds must resign." This decision was adopted almost by a solid vote, but it was not complete by Galkina and Notyag, which let to a serious conflict inside the St. Petersburg branch.
The position of the majority of YABLOKO party, the position of its leaders, the position of the governing bodies of the Party from the very beginning of the crisis was clear and precise: YABLOKO can not tolerate any fraud during elections, never can allow itself to move away from our commitment to honest politics. In this case YABLOKO in St.Petersburg was the only party that has not agreed to manipulations of the composition of its fraction and demanded that those deputies should refuse mandates which they gained as a result of frauds.
The position of a large part of the governing bodies of St. Petersburg YABLOKO (who has consistently supported the former chairman of the organization Maxim Reznik during the last few years), was, unfortunately, different.
Guided by - that they did not even hide - personal attitude to Olga Galkina and Vyacheslav Notyag, they stated that Galkina and Notyag should keep their parliamentary seats, because "they are good friends", "they did a lot for the party", "they participated in mass actions", "they gave money to repair the party office". In general, they "do not care", who will become a deputy - the main thing was that the party got its allotted number of mandates.
This is totally unacceptable for the party ideology.
Yes, for the party which puts forward a list, contained all respectable candidates, did not really matter which of them would become a deputy. But it is not "the same", if its candidates agree to the falsified credentials made by authorities. It is not "the same" when the government makes personal friends of the chair of the St. Petersburg branch deputies. It is not "the same", when these fraudulent MPs refuse to resign and get support from other friends and supporters of the chair.
This situation was discussed in St. Petersburg branch for several months. On December 21, 2011 the St. Petersburg YABLOKO Bureau decided to recommend Galkina and Notyag to refuse their mandates, which were obtained by dishonest means. This decision was taken only by a slight majority with a strong resistance of a number of members of the Bureau.
Further on in the campaign to protect Galkina and Notyag members of the Regional Council of the party were also taking part. After Notyag and Galkina refused to resign they voted against their expulsion from the party at a conference of the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO in February 2012. After Galkina and Notyag resigned from the party themselves (the day before their inevitable expulsion by the Bureau of YABLOKO in Moscow) announced their gratitude to them on the basis of their previous work in YABLOKO. In June 2012 they sent a letter to the YABLOKO Congress insulting those members of the St. Petersburg branch, who insisted on refusal of Notyag's and Galkina's seats. And until now they did not change their position, although they had many opportunities to do so.
Their belief was not shaken even after the process in the Kirov district court, where the rigged election results on the Galkina's territory were contested.
On the last day of the trial in June 2012, the representatives of the city elections committee showed documents signed by Galkina, dated the morning of December 5. These documents are claiming a recount in four polling stations where the results of YABLOKO was suddenly grown by several times later, and a document in which Galkina reported that she was notified of the time and place of the recouting. This is fundamentally opposite to her previous statements about the complete ignorance of causes of voting changes (which she called "a miracle") and putting all the responsibility for the fraud on the city election committee. It turned out that the agreement with authorities took place and Galkina took an active part in that "miracle". Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a different answer.
If on the next election the same frauds will take place (authorities change YABLOKO faction in favor of those who is more favorable for them), there is no doubt that those people who are supporting Galkina and Notyag now will approve these frauds again. Knowing this fact, how will other YABLOKO memebers who opposed acceptance of the frauds in December 2011, will be involved in the next elections? And how then to explain that YABLOKO is fighting for fair elections?
The party can only exist in an atmosphere of trust among its members. There is no such confidence in St. Petersburg branch today. And it must be clearly understood that such trust was destroyed by those who defended Galkina and Notyag. Although among them there are people who were in the party for many years, and did a lot for it.
In any party it may be different positions on different issues, tough disputes and clashes of interests. But there are issues on which different opinions are impossible. And therefore it is necessary to recognize the hard truth: some members of the St. Petersburg YABLOKO were not able to take up a principled position that it is not possible to steal votes, even if it happens to benefits of their friends.
The only possible answer to this question by YABLOKO is NO! But those, whom the party had to expel on the 8th of December, could not admit this answer.
On December 8 a bureau of Yabloko party decided to expel a number of members of the St. Petersburg branch who were in its former governing bodies. This decision was difficult and took a long time. But it was necessary.
A different solution would mean that the party, which has always opposed the election fraud, may contain people who are prepared to accept the fraud, if the fraud was made for the benefit of their friends. Or led to the election results, which are more satisfactory for them.
Why the party was forced to take such a decision?
On December 4, 2011, during the elections to the Legislative Assembly YABLOKO received 12.4% of votes and six seats.
In fact, the results above were frauded - according to independent calculations of the voting protocols issued by candidates and observers at the polls, it should have been 13.85%, and seven seats.
It means that one mandate was stolen from YABLOKO after the fraud of electoral commissions while vote counting at night of 4 to 5 December.
The elections were held under the proportional system. Six of these mandates were to go to Grigory Yavlinsky - the leader of the electoral list, and five candidates from YABLOKO in the constituencies, where YABLOKO received the highest number of votes. And by the evening of 5 December, these data have been posted on the website of the city election committee.
However, later during the week the city election committee was not announcing official election results. Why was that happening became clear later: all that time there were "corrections" of the elections results in order to increase the number of seats for the "United Russia" and to change deputies in the future factions - by changing the percentage of votes for parties in different constituencies.
Election results were officially announced only after a week - on the 12th of December. And in a way that changed the composition of the factions: there were other deputies. In particular, the "walk-through" places in the YABLOKO list were occupied by Olga Galkina and Vyacheslav Notyag, who were previously at the bottom of the list (and they did not question this fact at all).
To do this, on the night of 11 to 12 December data with voting results on Galkina's and Notyag's constituencies was changed. Compared with the primary protocols from observers they simply added a significant number of votes in order to increase the percentage of votes for those particular YABLOKO candidates - in one case it was from 14% to 38%, in the other - from 11% to 42%, in the third - from 4% to 53%. It never happened before on any elections that additional votes were added to YABLOKO.
Bureau members of the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO unofficially got to know about a possibility of such fraud on December 11, after which the bureau had an urgent meeting. Most members of the Bureau considered this possibility unlikely and it was not believed. But in the morning on December, 12 the city election committee announced election results with Galkina and Notyag as deputies. After that the Bureau gathered again.
It is very important point. Those plans of the election committee to change the YABLOKO faction could be ripped off simply. It was enough to those, who received parliamentary seats unfairly, to reject them. It did not matter who it was to receive mandates after their resignation - the only essential thing was that Galkina and Notyag had no right to claim those mandates.
If the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO took a common position on this matter and would offer to Galkina and Notyag to resign, the whole situation would develop quite differently. First of all, seeing that common position of the party Galkina and Notyag might have taken a decision to resign. Secondly, there would not be a conflict inside the St. Petersburg organization.
Unfortunately, this did not happen. At the meeting of the St. Petersburg branch on December, 12 a large part of its members advocated that Galkina and Notyag can maintain their mandates. That is, in fact an acknowledgment of the falsification of election results.
YABLOKO party Bureau's decision of 18th of December 2011 considered this position as compliance with the fraud. The Bureau of the Party decided that "members of the party, who became deputies as a result of election frauds must resign." This decision was adopted almost by a solid vote, but it was not complete by Galkina and Notyag, which let to a serious conflict inside the St. Petersburg branch.
The position of the majority of YABLOKO party, the position of its leaders, the position of the governing bodies of the Party from the very beginning of the crisis was clear and precise: YABLOKO can not tolerate any fraud during elections, never can allow itself to move away from our commitment to honest politics. In this case YABLOKO in St.Petersburg was the only party that has not agreed to manipulations of the composition of its fraction and demanded that those deputies should refuse mandates which they gained as a result of frauds.
The position of a large part of the governing bodies of St. Petersburg YABLOKO (who has consistently supported the former chairman of the organization Maxim Reznik during the last few years), was, unfortunately, different.
Guided by - that they did not even hide - personal attitude to Olga Galkina and Vyacheslav Notyag, they stated that Galkina and Notyag should keep their parliamentary seats, because "they are good friends", "they did a lot for the party", "they participated in mass actions", "they gave money to repair the party office". In general, they "do not care", who will become a deputy - the main thing was that the party got its allotted number of mandates.
This is totally unacceptable for the party ideology.
Yes, for the party which puts forward a list, contained all respectable candidates, did not really matter which of them would become a deputy. But it is not "the same", if its candidates agree to the falsified credentials made by authorities. It is not "the same" when the government makes personal friends of the chair of the St. Petersburg branch deputies. It is not "the same", when these fraudulent MPs refuse to resign and get support from other friends and supporters of the chair.
This situation was discussed in St. Petersburg branch for several months. On December 21, 2011 the St. Petersburg YABLOKO Bureau decided to recommend Galkina and Notyag to refuse their mandates, which were obtained by dishonest means. This decision was taken only by a slight majority with a strong resistance of a number of members of the Bureau.
Further on in the campaign to protect Galkina and Notyag members of the Regional Council of the party were also taking part. After Notyag and Galkina refused to resign they voted against their expulsion from the party at a conference of the St. Petersburg branch of YABLOKO in February 2012. After Galkina and Notyag resigned from the party themselves (the day before their inevitable expulsion by the Bureau of YABLOKO in Moscow) announced their gratitude to them on the basis of their previous work in YABLOKO. In June 2012 they sent a letter to the YABLOKO Congress insulting those members of the St. Petersburg branch, who insisted on refusal of Notyag's and Galkina's seats. And until now they did not change their position, although they had many opportunities to do so.
Their belief was not shaken even after the process in the Kirov district court, where the rigged election results on the Galkina's territory were contested.
On the last day of the trial in June 2012, the representatives of the city elections committee showed documents signed by Galkina, dated the morning of December 5. These documents are claiming a recount in four polling stations where the results of YABLOKO was suddenly grown by several times later, and a document in which Galkina reported that she was notified of the time and place of the recouting. This is fundamentally opposite to her previous statements about the complete ignorance of causes of voting changes (which she called "a miracle") and putting all the responsibility for the fraud on the city election committee. It turned out that the agreement with authorities took place and Galkina took an active part in that "miracle". Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a different answer.
If on the next election the same frauds will take place (authorities change YABLOKO faction in favor of those who is more favorable for them), there is no doubt that those people who are supporting Galkina and Notyag now will approve these frauds again. Knowing this fact, how will other YABLOKO memebers who opposed acceptance of the frauds in December 2011, will be involved in the next elections? And how then to explain that YABLOKO is fighting for fair elections?
The party can only exist in an atmosphere of trust among its members. There is no such confidence in St. Petersburg branch today. And it must be clearly understood that such trust was destroyed by those who defended Galkina and Notyag. Although among them there are people who were in the party for many years, and did a lot for it.
In any party it may be different positions on different issues, tough disputes and clashes of interests. But there are issues on which different opinions are impossible. And therefore it is necessary to recognize the hard truth: some members of the St. Petersburg YABLOKO were not able to take up a principled position that it is not possible to steal votes, even if it happens to benefits of their friends.
The only possible answer to this question by YABLOKO is NO! But those, whom the party had to expel on the 8th of December, could not admit this answer.