The Central Election Commission began issuing accreditation to observers of the presidential elections from the CIS

The mission of the CIS Executive Committee has begun monitoring the upcoming presidential elections in Russia, Ilkhom Nematov, Deputy Secretary General of the CIS, head of the observation mission from the Commonwealth, announced this on Monday. Before this, he received from the hands of the Chairman of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova the first accreditation certificate of an international observer for these elections. The mission will include about 100 people, including representatives of the central election commissions of the CIS countries. In total, more than a thousand international observers will observe these elections, the Foreign Ministry estimated. The OSCE/ODIHR refused to send observers to us.

“At the invitation of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, today we opened our headquarters and began monitoring the upcoming presidential elections, which will take place on March 15–17. This is our ninth mission,” Ilkhom Nematov told reporters on Monday.

“This election is very different from the rest, since many countries, especially neutral ones, are watching us, how and what will happen, whether Russia will survive or not. It is very important for us that there is broad representation in international observation elections,” Ella Pamfilova said shortly before at a meeting dedicated to preparations for the upcoming vote.

According to Ambassador at Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Gennady Askaldovich, the diplomatic department does not keep an accurate record of international observers, but, according to him, more than a thousand observers representing various international structures will come to the presidential elections. As for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR), this structure itself refused to send observers to Russia, the diplomat said, “thus confirming that it is an unprofessional, conceptual, weak organization, structure, which takes an openly Russophobic position.” Nevertheless, there is no shortage of people willing to come to these elections, Mr. Askoldovich added, “rather, the task is not to offend those whom we cannot invite.”

The main concern at the Foreign Ministry, admitted Gennady Askaldovich, is the security situation around polling stations abroad. Due to the destructive policies of unfriendly countries, communication with Russian diplomatic missions is complicated, and their staff has been reduced, which creates problems with the formation of polling stations. The activity of relocants, especially those who have a negative attitude towards the current president and the Russian authorities, has become a serious problem, the diplomat admitted: they are preparing to carry out provocations abroad during the presidential elections. “Their aggressive attitude was strengthened by the refusal to register Boris Nadezhdin, and now their frustration and aggression will be transferred to our representative offices,” the diplomat warned.

In turn, the chairman of the Central Election Commission stated that external interference in elections is becoming more and more sophisticated, and if earlier the emphasis was on external information and propaganda bias, now the emphasis is on creating a large number of internal centers of discredit and “demolition of elections.” Moreover, dangerous pockets of destabilization may arise not only in the field of elections, but also in the sphere of housing and communal services, healthcare, and culture, Ella Pamfilova warned.

The CEC also talked about how the door-to-door voter survey that started last weekend is going. Almost 330 members of precinct commissions are participating in it – they must tell voters about the timing and methods of voting. Over the past weekend, almost 250 thousand people worked “in the field”, who collectively went through 11.5 million households, said Elmira Khaimurzina, a member of the Central Election Commission. “The coverage is very large, the doors are opening quite well, voters are making contact, thanking them for coming to them,” she said. During the September elections, the turnout rate was 19% higher in polling stations where such a bypass was carried out, Ms. Khaimurzina recalled. “If we talk about the number of positive contacts and conversations, then in two days of work there were 8 million of them, that is, 69.5% of the households visited—these are people who respond well to the fact that we come.” There were, of course, angry dogs and evil people, she added, but this only brought honor to her colleagues. To ensure that those present were fully immersed in the scale of what was happening, Ella Pamfilova read out to those present the reviews of the walk-through participants. The reviews sounded intriguing. “I went to an anniversary, witnessed a family quarrel, fed me pies,” read the chairman of the Central Election Commission. “She was sent far away, found 15,659 steps, burned 439 kilocalories… They found a corpse, ran into drunks and squabbling spouses, but overall there was more positivity…”

Anastasia Kornya