The team at Democracy Volunteers has today condemned the Russian government for imprisoning Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Russian election observation group GOLOS, to five years in prison. He was accused of “organising the work of an undesirable organisation”.
Director John Ault, and the team at Democracy Volunteers, have worked with members of GOLOS and welcomed them as election observers to the 2019 UK General Election. As the Venice Commission states: ‘Electoral observers exercise a crucial role as human rights defenders by ensuring the respect for essential rights and freedoms. However, despite their significant contributions, both national and international observers face increasing obstacles in monitoring electoral processes worldwide.’
Commenting, Dr Ault said, ‘Yet again we see the Russian government using levers of the state to prevent independent observation of elections in Russia. Grigory’s only crime is his attempt to assess the quality of elections in Russia and find them wanting.’
In his comment to Democracy Volunteers, Roman Udot, co-chair of GOLOS from 2013–2023, said that ‘observing the electoral process is both a profound responsibility and a rare privilege. It is a cornerstone — free civic oversight over the production of power. As with any oversight, it ensures the quality of the product. People in free and democratic countries don’t notice it, like air. They take elections for granted. They rarely observe. They often even abstain from voting.’
‘Whereas under dictatorial regimes, even mere observation turns into a right that people pay for with their liberty. We have seen observer-prisoners in Belarus — V. Stefanovich and U. Labkovich — and in Azerbaijan, A. Mammadli. Now, we have Gregory Melkonyants in Russia. A groundless, unjust, absurd sentence for the right to observe.’
Roman Udot and other former members of GOLOS will be in Scotland in June assessing the electoral process in Scottish Parliamentary elections.
