Electoral reforms underway in Russia, says Ella Pamfilova

Eurasia News

Moscow, Russia: Russian Central Election Commission is finalizing electoral reforms before forthcoming Presidential Election.

Testing of electoral reform was conducted during regional elections held on 10 September 2017 in six federal subjects of Russia.

During her meeting with President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova informed President Putin that elections were successfully held in 82 out of 85 regions including gubernatorial elections in 16 regions.

She said that Election Commission is (was) addressing election-related issues that commission had during 2016 and electoral reforms were tested in Dagestan, Moscow and the Saratov Regions.

She stated that 80% complaints her office received were relation with balloting process of municipal councils.

She said that Election Commission had offer an additional option to voter to poll her/his vote at actual place of residence, not where he or she is officially registered.

She suggested that same additional option of polling vote at actual place of residence should be repeated in Presidential elections.

If the same approach is used during the upcoming presidential election, we expect millions of people to benefit from this solution, given the size of our country. We are currently focusing on getting the word out about these new opportunities. We have removed all the barriers, and people must be aware of the opportunities they now have and must know how to use them.

“We are explaining to people where they can vote and how. Our information centre for the presidential campaign is already working. We engaged multifunctional centres and the unified government services system which offers online registration. Some 242,000 people learned about this mechanism and used it,” maintained Chairperson of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova.