Ella Pamfilova
© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS
MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The Central election Commission of Russia is preparing proposals on enhancing the practice of early voting, or its complete cancellation. This was stated by the CEC Chairman, Ella Pamfilova.
“To this headache don’t have, we are now preparing proposals on streamlining, optimizing and, perhaps, the abolition of early voting, if we are able to offer adequate ways to vote people, not to violate their constitutional right to vote,” she said at the CEC session.
Pamfilova recalled that early voting for those who cannot come to the polling station on election day, regional and municipal elections. This norm is regulated by state and local laws. In the elections of the state Duma and the RF President’s early voting is not carried out.
However, in Federal elections, organized early voting in remote and hard to reach areas on camps of reindeer herders, polar stations, etc. However, the gripe is that is a voluntary early voting when people vote early because on election day should go to work, go to another city, to the country and so on.
“Experience shows that early voting in the regions is one of the biggest potential opportunities for various kinds of fraud. And we see it”, she said. Pamfilova added that the CEC will closely monitor early voting in municipal elections to “take all precautionary measures to prevent different kinds of fraud during the autumn campaign.”