ALLEGATIONS OF ELECTORAL FRAUD IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 4 Issue: 63

President Yeltsin and other Moscow officials voiced "concern" yesterday over allegations of electoral fraud in last Sunday’s election for the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s third largest city. The Prosecutor General has been asked by the chairman of Russia’s Central Electoral Commission to investigate reports of vote-buying by Mayor-Elect Andrei Klimentyev, a nightclub owner known as "Pimple." What is not in doubt is that Klimentyev’s campaign platform included promises to open special shops at which pensioners would be able to buy subsidized foodstuffs. Klimentyev already has two criminal convictions. He was sentenced in 1982 to eight years in prison for fraud and selling pornographic videos, and recently served an 18-month sentence for embezzlement. (Russian agencies, March 31; Daily Telegraph, April 1) If the allegations are upheld, the election could be declared invalid. Coming as it would from Moscow, such a ruling might well be opposed in Nizhny Novgorod on the grounds that the center was interfering in the city’s affairs.

Yeltsin Meets with President of Namibia.