| Type | Non-profit NGO |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| Location | Russia Active in 40 regions of Russia. General secretariat in Moscow |
| Method | Observations of elections and referendums |
| Motto | In defense of the rights of voters |
| Website | www.golos.org |
The GOLOS Association (Cyrillic: ГОЛОС, meaning "vote" or "voice")[1] is a Russian civilian organisation established in 2000 to protect the electoral rights of citizens and to foster civil society. As of 2008, the organisation covers 40 Russian regions. It is the only independent election watchdog active in Russia.[2]
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Since 2002 GOLOS has monitored elections and referendums of all levels.
In the March 2008 presidential election and accompanying local elections, GOLOS representatives found many irregularities, including the following.[3]
The group publishes a newspaper Grazhdansky Golos (Civil Voice).
The Telegraph describes Golos as being "one of the few organisations able to catalogue and publicise [the Kremlin's] attempts at fraud and intimidation".[2]
After officially interviewing GOLOS Association on November 25 and 26, 2011 NTV representatives (a major Russian television broadcaster), on November 26, 2011 three men entered a room where the organisation conducted an internal training, and accused GOLOS of coopetation with CIA and such. Two days later, on November 28 two NTV representatives entered the headquarters of the organisation while GOLOS spokesmen were giving a press conference at an independent press-centre. GOLOS representatives suggested that the men should go and instead take part in the official press session, but the journalists repeated similar accusations as two days before. This incident was recorded on a mobile phone and the video is available on youtube, showing a GOLOS director constantly repeating that it was a provocation instead of answering any questions.
On the 2nd December NTV has shown an investigative documentary film, "Голос ниоткуда" (Golos niotkuda, translated as "Voice from nowhere" or "Vote from nowhere"), in which the GOLOS Association was accused in making propaganda payed by the foreign money, in particular from the United States.[4]
On the 8th December the Life News portal has announced it had received access to 60 Mb of correspondence between GOLOS administration and the USAID (a federal government agency of the United States), and correspondence between GOLOS administration and its activists. The correspondence has shown that GOLOS sent reports to the USAID on how the money they received from the USAID were spent. Also the correspondence has shown that activists received money for working with every report on a violation.[5]
On 1 December 2011 prosecutors in Moscow served Golos with papers alleging the organisation had portrayed an unnamed political party in a bad light. The unnamed party has been identified as being United Russia.[2] Elections are due to take place on 4 December 2011.[2]
On 2 November a Moscow court fined Golos 30 000 roubles (about 1000 USD) for violations of the electoral law of Russia.[4]