The head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova made a report on readiness for voting in the presidential elections

Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova on Thursday launched the work of the CEC information center, making a report on readiness for voting in the presidential elections to foreign observers and media representatives. There were so many of them that there was even a shortage of seats in the Central Executive Committee hall, especially since after the recent renovation there were noticeably fewer seats there. As a result, the guests learned that the Russian electoral system is resistant to any challenges, and it only has to compete with itself.

“It seems like yesterday, but in fact on December 7, the Federation Council adopted a resolution on the presidential elections of the Russian Federation, scheduled for March 17, 2024,” Ella Pamfilova began with her memories. And the very next day, the Central Election Commission – by the way, for the first time in a presidential election – decided to hold the vote within three days. This decision was made based on the request of voters, she emphasized.

Then the head of the Central Election Commission spoke about the rigorous testing that the “candidate candidates” had undergone: in total, the commission received 33 notifications of nomination, but only 11 people passed the first stage of selection. Based on them, 212 personal requests were sent to 15 different inspection bodies and institutions, and information was also received from 450 Russian credit institutions, register holders and depositories on the availability of accounts, deposits in banks and securities. The sources of funding for the election campaign were also checked: the CEC requested verification of information on donations from more than 45 thousand individuals, 58 legal entities and 38 NGOs, in addition, a daily check was carried out on all donors to ensure they were included in the register of foreign agents. The total amount of funds received into the candidates’ accounts amounted to 1 billion 331 million rubles.

Ms. Pamfilova did not go into details of the registration procedure, noting only that failed candidates tried to challenge the decisions of the Central Election Commission in the courts, but to no avail. As a result, four people remained on the ballot approved by the Central Election Commission on February 8. 113,574,550 ballot papers with several degrees of security were produced for the elections, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission reported.

Also, for the first time, presidential elections are being held by election commissions of 89 regions, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Ella Pamfilova emphasized. In total, over 94 thousand polling stations are involved in voting, of which 91,401 are formed in the general order, and another 2,538 are in places of temporary stay of voters, including 1,056 polling stations in hospitals and 957 in ships. 264 sites have been created on the territory of military units, 121 in pre-trial detention centers, and 43 in enterprises with a continuous cycle of work. Another 42 sites will open at train stations and airports, and 10 at polar stations. 295 sites will open abroad. It was there that Russians faced the maximum violation of their rights, Ms. Pamfilova emphasized: “We have an unprecedented violation going on, right in the pool of Western countries that have designated us as an enemy, a violation of the rights of Russian citizens, including the restriction of their voting rights.” She also warned of impending actions to disrupt the voting of Russians abroad, where relocants have created a whole network of headquarters to discredit the elections.

In Russia, the electoral system also experiences “constant psychological pressure,” Ella Pamfilova complained. But members of election commissions will endure everything, because these are “people’s commissions” that represent the entire spectrum of Russian society, she said: “In fact, the West has been imposing such a myth for many years that we have an administrative-command system, elections are organized and counted by officials, they take under the visor – this is complete nonsense! Half of the election commissions consist of representatives of parties and the public, and less than 6% are officials, the chairman of the Central Election Commission explained to foreign guests.

In 42 regions, early voting began on February 25, in which almost 2 million people took part by March 14, Ms. Pamfilova continued. Judging by the data on the Central Election Commission information boards, such activity was provided mainly by new territories, which are allowed to use all possible types of voting (early, group and in local areas) in any combination. Thus, in the DPR, 47.5% of voters have already voted early, in the LPR – 17.1%, in the Zaporozhye region – 43% and in the Kherson region – 58.1%. In the rest of the territory, the highest rates of “early voting” were demonstrated by the Magadan region, Tuva and Chukotka, but activity there was an order of magnitude lower (from 2.1% to 2.9% of voters voted early).

The upcoming elections also promise to be the most conflict-free, as follows from Ella Pamfilova’s report: since the beginning of the campaign, the CEC information and reference center received about 140 thousand calls, but 92% of them were of an informational nature, and only 342 messages (0.4% of the total numbers) contained information about possible violations in the elections. The CEC also received 1,357 written complaints, of which only 351 contained real information about possible violations; they are now being verified. But many signals are fake reports of violations, the purpose of which is to overwhelm commission members with meaningless work, the CEC chairwoman is sure. However, “the system is resistant to any challenges, we will cope with them,” she assured, concluding her speech.

After this, all those present were invited to take part in the ceremony of sharing the keys that will be required to decipher the results of remote electronic voting (DEG). There are two of them – according to the number of time zones in which the ballots will be processed (Moscow and Kaliningrad). Each key was divided into seven parts, which were distributed to representatives of parliamentary parties, the Central Election Commission and the territorial election commission (TEC) of the DEG. As the chairman of TEC DEG Oleg Artamonov said, now the keys will be stored in the commission premises in sealed safe boxes under round-the-clock video surveillance. They will be collected to sum up the results of the DEG after the end of the elections in the Kaliningrad region, that is, after 21:00 Moscow time.

Applications to participate in the DEG, according to the Central Election Commission, were submitted by almost 4.8 million voters. Taking into account Moscow, where there is no need to register in advance to participate in online voting, the total number of voters “will become unattainable for anyone in the world,” Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Bulaev expressed confidence. Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission Dmitry Reut did not disappoint him. “We will not let down the country, nor the Muscovites, nor our city! Moscow is completely ready for the elections,” he reported. “We are definitely going for a record,” confirmed Oleg Artamonov, but Mr. Bulaev, just in case, also clarified that the DEG system will only have to overcome its own achievements. “We are defeating ourselves,” he concluded with satisfaction.

Anastasia Kornya