The European Court of Human Rights has found violations of people’s right to fair and free elections during 2011 Duma campaign in Russia. It ruled that Russia has to pay 38.000 euros to nine claimants who had sued the Russian authorities.

The Court explicitly stated that it did not consider in detail the essence of the claims the plaintiffs had to the election process or the possible violations found. At the same time, the ECHR acknowledged that the plaintiffs brought reasonable arguments about the wrong process of vote counting that had not been properly considered in the Russian courts.

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Voters, candidates and election observers at December 2011 elections to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and the State Duma acted as claimants in the case. They argued that the outcome of the election commissions differed from that in the protocols the observers received.

According to the plaintiffs, the election commissions added votes to United Russia. The party got more than 49% of the votes in 2011 elections, according to official figures.