At the same time, Mr. Veshnyakov stressed that the violations at the Duma elections the Communist Party stated had not been confirmed so far. According to him, the members of the commission “are not comfortable with the parallel tallying executed by the party, as the Central Election Commission has not received the documents according to which the data is input”.

Earlier on Friday Mr. Veshnyakov stated that there were grounded claims against activities of a number of regional election commissions. For example, according to him, many violations were found in Bashkiria. In this republic, there were errors while registering candidates and issuing ballots. Additionally, Mr. Veshnyakov pointed out that “total helplessness in the face of administrative violations” had been demonstrated.

The official also stressed that in a number of Russian regions and republics, for instance, in the Chechen Republic, the Kamchatka, Kaluga and Moscow regions, there was a considerable discrepancy between those who had come to polling booths and registered voters. “In the Moscow region, 234,000 people were added to the voter database which was 4.41 percent more than those on registration lists,” Mr. Veshnyakov noted.

As the head of the Central Election Commission emphasized, every misdeed will be thoroughly analyzed and prosecutor’s offices will be involved if necessary. Addressing staff of regional election commissions, the official expressed hope that such situation would not emerge at the Russian presidential elections on March 14, 2004.