Zilya Valeeva: “We are perfectly able to gather votes for Kul Sharif without hackers”
“We clearly cannot be accountable for someone violating the rules of voting,” Z. Valeeva commented. “We are perfectly able to gather the number of votes that was presented without hackers.”
Museum’s director went on to express doubt of the competition’s transparency. “We know few details about the competition’s programme,” she shared. “We receive many questions from public associations related to the voting for the mosque and its displacement.”
Kul Sharif currently ranks 16th. “The mosque is in fact one of the most competitive sights in this competition,” Z. Valeeva enhanced.
“Events to promote the mosque are planned but if we feel that over the course of competition another sight is being deliberately promoted, we will act depending on the situation,” Z. Valeeva told Tatar-inform. “We plan flash mobs with the participation of youth associations,” she noted, adding that internet communities had joined in supporting the mosque in the internet voting.
According to a group set up on a social network, voting became more active on 22 July. The mosque then ranked 23rd, with 65 thousand votes scored. On 28 July, PR events on social networks and media support allowed it climb up to the 13th line.
Over 14 August alone, over 89 thousand new users were informed on the Vkontakte social network. The measure called large ‘withdrawal of votes’ was, oddly enough, first applied on the day when Kul Sharif moved up to the 13th line.
The first withdrawal of votes took place on 29 July. Project’s organisers then made no clear comments, immediately causing doubts in project’s transparency and objectivity of vote counting. The administrators explained that ‘the votes had been removed for artificial addition between 24 and 29 July’.
A group of activists from youth associations of Russian regional cultural autonomies and Tatarstan media and urban communities has been formed.