The Central Election Commission approved the election of Vladimir Putin for a new term

The Central Election Commission on Thursday summed up the official results of the presidential election. Only two of the four campaign participants took part in the ceremony; no one doubted Vladimir Putin’s victory, and the work of the electoral system as a whole was assessed as close to ideal. But election legislation still needs to be improved, former candidates and their representatives insisted: it would be good to collect more electronic signatures in support of candidates, deputies should be allowed to work as proxies, and deregistration for copyright infringement should be abolished.

It took the Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova just over an hour to sum up the results of the campaign. This is more than elections, this is a huge historical event that will affect not only processes within the country, but also the fate of the world, she immediately explained to those gathered. Ms. Pamfilova thanked the parties participating in the campaign, who in this situation showed “incredible responsibility, wisdom and the approach of statesmen,” as well as voters who contributed to the strengthening of Russia by coming to the polling stations.

The final results were as follows: the turnout was 77.49%, and 87.28% of voters, or 76.28 million people, voted for Vladimir Putin – 20 million more than in 2018.

At foreign polling stations (which this time there were a third less than in 2018), 388.8 thousand voters voted, 72.54% of them supported candidate Putin. Vladislav Davankov (New People) received 16.44% of the votes abroad, Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) – 2.26%, Leonid Slutsky (LDPR) – 1.99%. The head of the Central Election Commission reported that in countries with the highest concentration of relocants, Vladimir Putin received the fewest votes, but there were the most spoiled ballots (in Poland – up to a third of the total). Nevertheless, the current president won a majority even in the most unfriendly countries, Ella Pamfilova emphasized: in Germany he received 56.8% of the vote, in Latvia – 70.6%, in Australia – 53.6%, in Armenia – 54.7% (apparently due to those who came from Georgia, the chairman of the Central Election Commission suggested), in the USA – 42.2%.

Ms Pamfilova also complained that election organizers faced constant intimidation, blackmail and attempts to discredit the electoral system, cyber attacks and telephone terrorism on an “unprecedented” scale. “Here someone is lamenting in Telegram channels that the Central Election Commission did not do its job properly, it let these unfortunate people through with brilliant green,” said Ella Pamfilova. “If those who write could imagine the scale of what the electoral system had to face this time, in that toxic situation!.. How many we have repulsed in total – these few incidents, on the contrary, emphasize the complete mobilization of the system and the fact that we almost proactively repulsed all large-scale attacks of various forms, apparently and invisibly…”

In total, 41 attempts to damage ballots and 10 attempts to set them on fire (all unsuccessful) were recorded; 30 ballot boxes were filled with green paint, but only 36 ballots were irretrievably lost, the chairman of the Central Election Commission calculated.

Another 706 ballots were declared invalid “for technical reasons,” including violations. At the same time, the CEC did not receive a single complaint that would require a collegial consideration, and out of 14,389 complaints, more than half were template statements from organized falsifiers from abroad – “so that we all get bogged down in a whirlpool of papers, forgetting about the voters,” explained Ella Pamfilova. Four members of election commissions (in Moscow, the Komi Republic, St. Petersburg and the Pskov region) expressed a dissenting opinion. As the head of the Central Election Commission clarified, these were representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko: the former traditionally criticized the DEG and expressed disagreement with a number of provisions of the election law, and the latter were dissatisfied with the reduction in opportunities for public control.

After Ella Pamfilova, the floor was given to the candidates and their representatives.

The report of the head of the Central Election Commission will probably be included in the Guinness Book of Records, although the historical victory of the President of the Russian Federation deserves such a detailed account of all the details, he admitted Leonid Slutsky. In his opinion, the voting and vote counting system at all levels worked close to “perfect.” Moreover, now our electoral system can be taken as a standard for large countries, and all attempts to interfere in Russian elections are the agony of the collective West, Mr. Slutsky assured the audience.

The elections were truly fair, aroused a huge turnout and interest of voters, agreed Vladislav Davankov. But they would be even better if candidates could collect more signatures online, since we have advanced so much in online voting, the politician suggested. He recalled that currently in regional elections up to 50% of signatures can be collected through Gosuslugi, but in reality only 5–6% are collected, and expressed hope that this idea will be promoted by the Central Election Commission, which “can convey information if there is such a priority.”

Co-chairman of Vladimir Putin’s headquarters Vladimir Mashkov was brief. He noted that, despite “colossal pressure,” the elections were held openly and fairly, and this is truly a historical event. “Thank you very much, and congratulations to us on victory!” – he concluded modestly.

Nikolai Kharitonov he did not come to the final meeting, and his authorized representative, State Duma deputy Georgy Kamnev, spoke for him. The elections were held legitimately, and there were indeed 10–12 times fewer comments about them than usual, the communist admitted. But the electoral legislation, according to him, still needs to be developed. In particular, it is necessary to limit the bureaucracy of election commissions in the preparation of documents and lift the ban on deputies becoming proxies of candidates: it is completely incomprehensible why they cannot support the party in debates, Mr. Kamnev reasoned. Also, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation believes that exclusion from elections for copyright violation is too harsh a punishment for candidates, because in this way copyright is placed higher than the constitutional right to elect and be elected, the deputy was perplexed.

The party “A Just Russia – For Truth” did not nominate a presidential candidate, but the secretary of the party’s central council, Dmitry Gusev, was also given the floor.

The peculiarity of the historical moment is that there were not elections, of course, but a referendum on confidence in the president and his course, he explained. The electoral system has coped, and now Mr. Gusev really hopes that in this state it will approach the parliamentary elections of 2026. Solving the tasks set by the president will require further unification of the entire political elite, the politician warned.

After this, the members of the Central Election Commission signed the final protocol, and the commission unanimously recognized the presidential elections as valid, and Vladimir Putin as elected to the post of president. The national anthem began to play and the audience burst into applause. “Our historic meeting ends here, colleagues, and from tomorrow – forward, not a minute of peace!” — Ella Pamfilova admonished those gathered.

Anastasia Kornya