CEC promises to form commissions in new territories by March 6

The Central Election Commission (CEC) began to form election commissions of new regions. On February 15, the commission proposed eight members of the commissions: two to work in each of the territories. Four of them headed the commissions during the referendums on the entry of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions into Russia, stressed the head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova. She described the rest as “specialists who will help colleagues adapt to the electoral standards in force in Russia in the short time remaining before a single voting day.”

As Vedomosti repeatedly wrote earlier, it is not planned to cancel the elections of deputies to legislative assemblies in 2023 in new regions, despite the martial law introduced in the regions. The heads in the DPR and LPR will be approved by the parliaments (in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, a decision on the form and timing of the election of governors has not yet been made). Formally, during martial law, elections cannot be held according to the current norms, but election commissions must be created, political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov notes. The CEC has begun preparations for the elections in accordance with Russian law, but work on political integration must take into account the real situation, political analyst Konstantin Kostin emphasized.