ST. PETERSBURG, April 22 (RAPSI) - The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation held that voters have legal standing to contest the results of elections in court, according to an official announcement released Monday. The Court has been reviewing the Civil Procedure Code as well as the federal laws on voting right guarantees.

The State Duma's representative at the Constitutional Court, Dmitry Vyatkin, said earlier that a voter can only contest an action if it is "directly related to exercising the right to vote." Therefore, a voter can complain about the inaccessibility of a polling station or the lack of an opportunity to vote at home.

The Court stated that the clauses being contested do not contain a direct ban on contesting election results. "A voter's right to control the counting of the votes is not recognized formally. Therefore, the court can reject suits related to this, and thus, the clauses in question are in conflict with the Constitution," the Court statement reads.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that lawmakers are to amend the procedure for contesting the actions of the election commissions that summarize the voting results.

Furthermore, until the changes are made, the courts are required to accept voters' lawsuits to protect any rights violated by mala fide vote counting and summarizing election results at their polling station.

Debates around the election procedure arose after the parliamentary elections held in December 2012. The United Russia party was accused of manipulating the poll results and a number of protest rallies were held in Moscow and St. Petersburg.