The will will not be left unattended

The Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Thursday signed a traditional agreement on cooperation with parties in the field of election observation, which this year was signed by 15 out of 17 invited organizations. Refused to join the document “Fair Russia – For Truth” and the Communist Party, which train their observers according to their own standards. Party members were also called upon to nominate observers for electronic voting. Public control over it will be organized at three levels: on a special portal, in the premises of the electoral commission for online voting and through connection to the blockchain node via a secure communication channel.

The agreement with the Civic Chamber (PC) on cooperation in the field of election observation provides for the joint training of observers and control over all forms of expression of will, including remote electronic voting (DEG). This year, the document was signed by 15 parties: United Russia, LDPR, New People, Growth Party, Greens, Communists of Russia, Party for Justice, Civil Power, Pensioners’ Party, Civic Platform , Rodina, Cossack Party, Green Alternative, Democratic Party and Russian Party of Freedom and Justice.

According to Lidiya Mikheeva, the secretary of the OP, Lidia Mikheeva, the task of monitoring for the chamber itself is to ensure “absolutely impartial” participation of members of the public in electoral procedures. “We sincerely hope that the observers who will be present from political parties are pursuing the same goals, although we perfectly understand what political competition is,” Ms. Mikheeva noted.

It should be noted that the OP has been signing such an agreement with parties for more than a year. At the same time, the number of its participants changes every time: for example, in 2021, 11 parties signed the document, and in 2022 – already 16. This year, 17 parties were invited to participate, but two of them declined to sign.

Maxim Grigoriev, First Deputy Chairman of the Public Control Commission on Public Control and Work with Citizens’ Appeals, explained that he traditionally refuses to sign the Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) agreement, although its representative regularly participates in the meeting of the Public Chamber with party members, at which the document is signed. At the event on August 10, SRZP was represented by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, adviser to the chairman of the party. She explained that SRHR does not join this agreement because it has its own Fair Observer project. At the same time, according to Ms. Pavlyuchenkova, her party will cooperate with the RF OP in the field of monitoring the DEG and will send its representatives to all levels of control over online voting. In addition, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova herself is a member of the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) of the DEG, the composition of which was approved by the Central Election Commission the day before.

Representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were not present at the meeting of social activists with party members. The first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the party, State Duma deputy Yuri Afonin, told Kommersant that the communists are independently preparing a large team of observers. “Time has shown that only observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, in fact, are fighting against real violations that occur at polling stations,” Mr. Afonin said. In his opinion, the observers from the OP are largely connected with the authorities and fix not the most serious violations. “Unfortunately, the task of the public chambers is often not to reveal real violations, but to legitimize the elections in the event of the victory of United Russia,” the communist believes.

In addition, at a meeting of the OP with party members on August 10, the chairman of the TEC DEG, Oleg Artamonov, spoke about the training of observers for online voting. According to him, control over DEG will be carried out at three levels. The first is observation, available on a special portal: registered candidates will be able to appoint observers of this level on their own through the State Services portal. The second level observers will be in the premises of the TEC DEG and will see all the processes carried out in the commission. And the third level of monitoring online voting is an expert group that will have access to the observer node through a secure communication channel and see all the actions in the blockchain.

Mr. Artamonov urged party members to delegate observers for online voting at all levels, including nominating trained specialists to the technical group. He also said that before the September single voting day, the DEG system would undergo two tests: public and internal, to which observers and experts would also be involved.

Elena Rozhkova