The head of the CEC promised to solve the issue of voting in the capital’s pre-trial detention center

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow, Tatyana Potyaeva, asked the chairman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, to regulate voting issues in the capital’s municipal elections for suspects and defendants who are being held in a pre-trial detention center. This request was made during a visit by Mrs. Pamfilova to the public election observation headquarters in Moscow.

On the territory of Moscow, Ms. Potyaeva said, there are seven pre-trial detention centers, in which, according to her calculations, 1,200 people with active suffrage are kept. But how to organize the possibility of voting for them if they are not sitting at their place of residence is not regulated by law, the Ombudsman complained. “It seems to me that for future elections we need to think very carefully about how to organize the elections, because there are those who want to,” she said. wishing to take part in the voting.

As an example, Tatyana Potyaeva cited SIZO No. 5, where in one cell there were people who ended up behind bars at their place of residence and take part in the vote. But with them is the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is also a Muscovite, but is registered in another district and cannot vote in municipal elections. The Ombudswoman noted that electronic voting, in principle, allows solving this issue.

The chairman of the CEC supported her. According to Ella Pamfilova, the CEC received an appeal from Vladimir Kara-Murza, the issue was also discussed with members of the Presidential Human Rights Council, but the problem cannot be solved within the framework of the current law. “We need to work together. See what can be done and ensure this right,” Ms. Pamfilova promised. “There should be no discrimination for political (reasons.— “b”), nor by where the person is.”

Anastasia Kornya