MOSCOW - Having summoned 100,000 electoral officials for an all-Russian intercom conference on Tuesday, Alexander Veshnyakov, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, threatened them with prison terms if they rig the elections to the State Duma due this Sunday, and pledged to sue communist chief Gennady Zyuganov for his allegation that the authorities plan to falsify voting results. Thus the CEC has completed preparations for the elections.

Russia’s top elections official decided to hold the Tuesday intercom conference with the heads of election commissions at all levels in the building of the Communications Ministry. Such choice of venue is understandable. The Communications Ministry appears to suits the task of establishing communication between Veshnyakov and his subordinates throughout the country best.

Though, the connection was not perfect. In front of him Veshnyakov had a microphone and loud speakers, from which crackled a voice of some official from a remote part of the country.

A day earlier it was announced that taking part in the conference would be all 89 regions, or nearly 100,000 people, occupied with preparations for the elections to the State Duma. Journalists were anxious to find out how Mr. Veshnyakov would manage to converse with so many people at once.

But Veshnyakov contented himself to talking with but nine election officials, representing the Sakhalin Region, the Jewish Autonomous Area, Yakutia, the Krasnoyarsk Region, the Komi-Perm Autonomous Area, Tatarstan, as well as the regions of Kurgan, Vologda and Archangel. All of them said their regions had been fully prepared for the 7 December poll.

The last one to report was the head of the Chechen election commission Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov. Judging by what he said, the rebellious republic is 100 per cent ready for the elections. Moreover, the troops stationed there have already begun to cast ballots.

Veshnyakov feigned that he was satisfied with reports from the regions and gave floor to the CEC secretary Olga Zastroznaya, who instructed the audience on the rules and procedures of voting. In particular, she said, polling-booths and ballot-boxes must be installed so that not only members of election commissions, but also observers could see them.

At that point Veshnyakov intervened, threatening electoral officials at all levels with prison, if they dare rig the vote.

“I request you to resist the temptation to play up to local authorities or some political forces. The price for such obsequiousness may be criminal liability,” Veshnyakov said. “Any distortion of voting results during the elections of the State Duma deputies constitutes a criminal offence and will be persecuted by law. Once again I recommend you to re-read Articles 141 and 142 of the Criminal Code.”

CEC chairman went on to remind his subordinates that purges in the electoral ranks are quite possible, clearly alluding to the Bashkortostan election commission that has consistently ignored the CEC instructions over the past month.

Then Veshnyakov lashed out at Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader, who a day earlier addressed Vladimir Putin with a letter, alleging the authorities planned to rig the vote. “This is an unfounded political statement. One must be held liable for libel,” Veshnyakov said, without elaborating whether he would ask the prosecutor’s office to launch criminal case against Zyuganov on libel charges.

The next to take the floor was Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova. "The main task of all bodies of executive power is to create normal conditions for completing the Duma election campaign," Galina Karelova told the session. She drew special attention to the work of the law-enforcement structures to ensure and protect public order on the day of the elections.

At the same time, she said, the police must treat voters in a polite and friendly way. Veshnyakov backed Karelova, urging policemen and electoral officials to treat representatives of political parties with due respect. Many of them plan to count votes independently. Despite Veshnyakov’s threat to prison for rigging the poll, those parties are for some reason convinced that rigging will take place.

Communications Minister Leonid Reiman assured the conference that "communications workers will cope with the task of state importance of providing reliable communication for the election system during the voting and vote counting."

Election commission will begin processing voting results at 22h00 on 7 December, Veshnyakov said.

Official voting results will be drawn by 19 December. But, as follows from Veshnyakov’s threats, for someone those results may prove quite different.