Crimean Tatars boycotted Russian Duma elections
Many Crimean Tatars did not come to the polls on voting day in Russia on Sunday, September 18, 2016. The turnout at the precinct on their part was minimal as it was in 2014 during the referendum on the status of the Crimea, Radio Svoboda reported.
Refusal to participate is not indifference or inaction but a conscious protest against "lies that continue to inspire people on TV by different leaders, their deputies, officials and candidates,” stated the representatives of the Tatar population of the Crimea the night before the elections.
The leaders of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People urged their compatriots to boycott the vote and to stand in solidarity with them. "I will not go to the elections, because it is not my power, this is not my country," the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis, Nariman Celal, said, thereby refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the transition of the Peninsula under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
Radio Svoboda also reported that the representatives of the Tatar population of the Crimea, who live in several areas in the Bakhchysarai Region, boycotted Sunday's elections.
In Krasny Mak, the overall turnout in the precinct was much lower than usual. "In Ukraine we always had a turnout of 60% – 64%. A lot of people also came to vote in the 2014 referendum. However, now the activity is low. We, the Crimean Tatar population, did not vote. In Ukraine they went to the polls, but have now stopped," the Chairman of the Local Election Commission said.
In other villages, Zalesnoe and Orlovka, a similar picture is seen. "Crimean Tatars vote reluctantly. However, this is normal. In the 2014 referendum there was only one family of Tatars and one kid from another family. Now two or three Tatar families came," the Chairman of the Election Commission in Zalesnoe said.
It is noteworthy that, in the opinion of the staff of the Election Commission, the Crimean Tatars deliberately conceal who did not go to the polls. "We have the same lists. We can see who came, and who did not come," the Chairman of one of the Village’s Electoral Commission said.
"State employees visit the precincts as they are forced to do and made sure that they vote," the activist, one of the representatives of the Crimean Tatar population, said. According to her, people do not talk openly about their reluctance to vote, because they fear that they will “be taken on the pencil." The reason for the election boycott among the Tatars is that they simply "do not recognize the current situation in the Crimea," the activist concluded.
The Crimea was annexed by Russia on March 16, 2014 according to the results of the referendum held on the Peninsula.
With 93% of the votes counted, Putin’s United Russia party has won 54.2% of the vote, securing 343 seats in the 450-member State Duma.
The Communist Party and LDPR secured just over 13% of the vote, and A Just Russia won 6%. All three are pro-Kremlin parties.
The two main opposition parties, Yabloko and PARNAS, received just 1.89% and 0.7% respectively, far short of the 5% needed to secure party list registration.