How was the first day of elections in new regions?

The first day of elections in the country took place, among other things, against the backdrop of shelling of the Kherson region by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This became known when members of the Central Electoral Committee (CEC) of the Russian Federation were going to video call the commissions of new regions from the information center.

The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, and her deputy, Nikolai Bulaev, had to announce an hour-long break in the center’s work schedule. “The fact is that our situation there is changing. In the Kherson region, the commission had to be evacuated,” Pamfilova said. Bulaev, in turn, clarified that the election commission in the Kherson region was evacuated due to an announced missile attack and was forced to move to an “alternate airfield” where there is no communication.

Later it turned out that in the Skadovsky municipal district two drones were shot down by the air defense system in the immediate vicinity of the polling stations. The chairman of the regional election commission, Marina Zakharova, called the incident a “sabotage provocation” on the part of Kyiv.

An hour later, members of the election commission from the Kherson region managed to contact Pamfilova via videoconferencing. They spoke about the preliminary results of extraterritorial and early voting, the work of public observers and international experts. Members of the commission reported that voters are actively taking part in voting. “All stations opened at 8 am. At the moment of opening there was already a queue at the polling stations. People come to vote with enthusiasm, they come with Russian symbols – flags, ribbons. I drove through several areas myself. The turnout is really high. There are queues,” Zakharova shared. After the commission members were cut off from communication, they had to be evacuated again.

It was not possible to really talk to the election commission from the Lugansk People’s Republic, not because of communication problems: Senator and Deputy Secretary of the General Council of United Russia Daria Lantratova connected from the scene only briefly. Pamfilova explained that there is now very poor communication in the region due to constant attacks on websites. A similar situation occurred with the election commission of the Zaporozhye region: we managed to connect, but the connection was interrupted. “We are all doing well. “Everything is going according to plan, according to schedule,” the head of the election commission, Galina Katyushchenko, managed to say.

The electoral commission from the Donetsk People’s Republic was lucky to report without obstacles. Elections in the region are taking place without incident, and public observers have not recorded any violations of the voting process, announced the chairman of the commission, Vladimir Vysotsky. “Our task is to help realize the right of the residents of the republic to vote. A lot has happened over the nine years of war with Ukraine, and voting day is a bifurcation point at which all the emotions and desires of our people converge,” he concluded.

Bulaev and Pamfilova agreed that in these elections in Russia, voting in new regions is the most important. Forming an electoral system anew is very difficult, the deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission emphasized. “We can say with confidence that the system has proven its effectiveness – early voting and voting in extraterritorial areas went very well – and today it is being tested in essentially combat conditions,” Bulaev added.

In Russia as a whole, the level of attacks on the first day of voting is still assessed as low, Pamfilova said. According to her information, as part of protecting the DEG perimeter from web attacks, 5,024 attacks on DEG resources were blocked during the period of September 8 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. 151 attacks were carried out on one of the resources – stat.vybory.gov.ru; 4 thousand 583 attacks on vybory.gov.ru; 290 attacks on edg.gov.ru. Pamfilova noted that the most frequently recorded types of web attacks are requests from outside Russia.

The Central Election Commission also complained about the appearance of fake websites of election commissions. “A fake website of the Kherson Election Commission has been created. And it seems to me that this work will be systematic. (…) But I am sure that we will cope and will not react to such primitive tricks,” Bulaev said. All election commissions, according to him, have already been warned about the appearance of fake chats where they are trying to provoke election commission employees. Pamfilova noted that such fake sites are used when they want to defraud citizens of money. “And here they are luring out votes, which is much more important even than money,” concluded the CEC chairwoman.

One of the first cases of fakes was recorded in the Voronezh region. Members of the commission showed screenshots of correspondence in which the head of the Voronezh region commission allegedly writes to his colleague from the PEC. “This is pure fake news, they are trying to provoke people,” said the head of the Central Election Commission.