Head of Civic Chamber of Russia: Remote Observation is Not a Digital Future, But a Digital Present

Today, the IPA CIS Observer Team at the elections to the State Duma took part in a roundtable at the Situation Center of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for the Voting Observation. The discussion was attended by Team Coordinator – Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Shakirov and Secretary of the Civic Chamber Lidiya Mikheeva.

The Secretary informed the participants that in order to work at the elections to the State Duma, the Chamber trained more than 250,000 national observers – anyone who expressed a desire could undergo training. About 100,000 observers trained by the Chamber conducted monitoring on its behalf, but many of them became observers from political parties.

According to Lydiya Mikheeva, observation at the parliamentary elections reached a new level, including due to the technologies that made it possible to work remotely. The Chamber launched a special application for observers, which allows to fix the violation at the polling station via photos and videos and promptly send it to the situation center. “This is not a digital future, but a digital present,” emphasized Lydiya Mikheeva.