Electronic disagreements – Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) dated 03/27/2023
[ad_1]
The government of Khakassia, led by communist Valentin Konovalov, opposed the use of remote electronic voting (DEV) in the elections for the head of the republic in September, citing the “lack of high-quality Internet in remote areas.” The use of the DEG was previously supported by the head of the local election commission and representatives of United Russia (ER), against the republican branch of the Communist Party. The election committee recalled that the decision to use the DEG remains with him, and the high number of accounts on the State Services indicates a good digital readiness of the region. The expert considers Mr. Konovalov’s concerns about the DEG to be understandable, since online voting can become a trump card for his opponents.
The government of Khakassia, having assessed the possibility of using the DEG in the elections of the head of the region in September 2023 at the request of the electoral committee of the republic, spoke out against online voting. “After analyzing the accessibility for voters and the effectiveness of the DEG in summing up the results, the government issued a negative opinion on the expediency of the DEG in the election of the head of the Republic of Khakassia – the chairman of the government of the Republic of Khakassia,” the government told Kommersant. As the main argument, the authorities called “the lack of high-quality Internet connection in remote and hard-to-reach areas, which leads to the restriction of the right of some voters to vote.” The government added that the situation is complicated by “a large number of multi-level election campaigns.”
On September 10, 23 election campaigns will be held in Khakassia: in addition to the head of the republic and deputies of the Supreme Council, local self-government bodies of a number of cities, districts and settlements will be elected. Valentin Konovalov has been heading Khakassia since 2018. As a candidate from the Communist Party, he won 57.6% of the vote in the second round of elections and remains the only incumbent governor who defeated a competitor from United Russia. At the end of 2022, the communist did not rule out his nomination for a second term.
The government of Khakassia shared its opinion about the DEG after the republican election commission sent an application for the use of online voting to the Central Election Commission in early March. The commission is still confident in the correctness of its decision. “Recently, remote electronic voting and the possibility of its use in elections in Khakassia have been actively discussed in the media space. Unfortunately, they often contain inaccurate descriptions of the DEG mechanism and draw incorrect conclusions,” the election committee said on March 23 in its Telegram channel. The commission recalled that the decision to use the DEG is made by the election commission organizing the elections in agreement with the CEC of the Russian Federation, and the DEG itself is an additional form of voting that does not exclude the possibility of expressing will in the usual way. “One of the important indicators of a region’s readiness to use the DEG is the number of verified accounts on the Gosuslugi portal. In Khakassia, 90% of voters have such accounts,” the election commission noted.
Recall that in January 2023, the Republican Electoral Commission conducted an online survey of 1.3 thousand voters, 52.1% of whom said they tend to trust the DEG, and 28% expressed “certain doubts”. The head of the electoral committee, Alexander Chumanin, then said that he saw “two indisputable advantages” in the DEG: greater comfort for voters and the ability to take into account the votes of citizens who are outside of Khakassia. The idea of holding a DEG in the gubernatorial elections was also supported in United Russia: the first deputy head of the executive committee of the Khakass branch of the party, Viktor Lebedev, in particular, noted that online voting gives the party “additional opportunities to mobilize its supporters” and “simply convenient for an ordinary voter.” The Communist Party of the Russian Federation remains an opponent of the DEG: the party believes that such a procedure creates opportunities for manipulation during the vote count.
According to the CEC, as of March 15, 25 regions expressed their desire to hold a DEG. A Kommersant source in the CEC explained that the acceptance of proposals continues and after it is completed, all applications, including the Khakass one, will be considered.
“Obviously, if Valentin Konovalov remains the head of the region until the elections, and his main competitor – they now believe that it will be State Duma deputy Sergei Sokol – will run for election from the United Russia, the DEG can be a trump card for the candidate from the ruling party. Naturally, Konovalov is nervous that the DEG may play into the hands of his opponent and will in every possible way prevent its introduction,” says Ilya Grashchenkov, president of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy. In his opinion, there is a reason in the arguments about the low-quality Internet: “Khakassia is one of the remote Siberian regions, and the Internet is really not available everywhere. It turns out that the DEG will work only for large cities, and in the villages it will be difficult to either vote or check the results.” At the same time, the main electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is just village zones and small towns, the expert notes: “The DEG is not on the side of Konovalov. He is now probably conducting sociological surveys and sees that he has good chances of winning according to them, and the DEG can reduce these chances,” summarizes Mr. Grashchenkov.
[ad_2]
Source link
