IPA CIS Observers Met With Head of CEC of Russia

As part of the short-term monitoring of the elections to the State Duma, the IPA CIS international observers, headed by IPA CIS Observer Team Coordinator, Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Shakirov, visited the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.

The observers met with Chairperson of the CEC Ella Pamfilova and Head of the Territorial Election Commission of Remote Electronic Voting Ilya Massukh.

Ella Pamfilova informed the observers about the main stages of the election campaign and the activities of the commission during this period, including the specifics of work under pandemic.

The parties discussed the digitalization of the 2021 elections and exchanged views on the use of artificial intelligence technologies.

The IPA CIS observers were greatly interested in the detailed report of the Head of the Territorial Election Commission of Remote E-Voting Ilya Massukh about the technical aspects of the largescale innovation of the current elections. Ilya Massukh informed the observers about the identification of the voter and ensuring the anonymity of the vote, as well as the invariability of the data. He also demonstrated the work of an application that allowed any citizen to observe statistics of the voting.

Under the auspices of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, technical supervision groups were made for the preparation and progress of remote electronic voting. Specialists from various political parties, scientific organizations, experts in the field of cryptography became members of these groups.

IPA CIS Observer Team Coordinator Askar Shakirov informed the CEC Chairperson about the results of the long-term monitoring of the current electoral campaign and gave Ella Pamfilova a copy of the Report of the Expert Group for Long-Term Monitoring on the Preparation and Holding of Elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.