IPA CIS Observers Continue to Meet with Parties as Part of Long-Term Monitoring of Russian Parliamentary Elections

Today, international observers, staff members and experts of the International Institute for Monitoring the Democracy Development (IPA CIS IIMDD) met with representatives of the political parties that nominated candidates for the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation via videoconferencing. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat – IPA CIS IIMDD Director Ivan Mushket.

The New People Party was represented by Head of the Party Executive Committee Vladislav Davankov, the Party of Pensioners – by Chairman of the Central Council of the party Vladimir Burakov and Deputy Chairman Vladimir Vorozhtsov.

The participants of the electoral process spoke about their election programs, the peculiarities of campaigning under pandemic restrictions, assessed the introduction of remote electronic voting and the three-day voting, shared their impressions on the interaction with the election administration authorities at different stages of the campaigning, discussed cases of external (foreign) interference into the electoral process, including by international organizations that had refused to participate in the monitoring the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

The IPA CIS observers informed the representatives of political parties about their work and stressed that they adhered to the principles enshrined in the Convention on the Standards of Democratic Elections, Electoral Rights and Freedoms in the Member States of the CIS: political neutrality, impartiality, absence of preferences or assessments.

The members of the Observer Team also said that during the short-term monitoring from 16 to 20 September 2021 the Team would conduct observation at polling stations in Moscow and other regions of the Russian Federation, as well as at foreign polling stations in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Germany.

The IPA CIS delegation will take part in the monitoring of the elections to the State Duma at the invitation of Speaker of the lower house Vyacheslav Volodin.