Remote E-Voting Discussed at Meeting of International Youth Discussion Club “Tavricheskiy”

On 30 November 2023, the meeting of the international youth discussion club “Tavricheskiy” was held on topic “Remote Electronic Voting (REV): Openness and Trust” within the framework of the Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the electoral system of the Russian Federation.

The International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentarianism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations (IPA CIS IIMDD) organized the event.

Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Dmitriy Kobitskiy, Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council – Plenipotentiary Representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Kogut and Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council – Plenipotentiary Representative of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Aydin Jafarov participated in the meeting.

Undergraduates, master's and postgraduate students, young teachers, representing partner universities of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat took part in the meeting both in person and online.

Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat – IPA CIS IIMDD Director, Doctor of Law, Professor  Ivan Musket opened the meeting and drew attention to the fact that the digitalization of the electoral process and the introduction of remote e-voting are being discussed in various formats in the Commonwealth nowadays.

Deputy Chair of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Nikolay Bulaev told about the development of the REV system in the Russian Federation and gave examples of its application during the unified voting day on 10 September 2023.

Chair of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus Igor Karpenko shared the results of the sociological survey conducted among representatives of the youth of the Republic of Belarus, which, affirming support of the e-voting, raised the issue of violation of the secrecy of the vote.

Chair of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurzhan Shaldabekova shared the experience of the Kyrgyz Republic of digital technologies application in the organization and conduct of elections and referenda.

Chair of the Election Commission of the Novgorod region Arina Voronitsina highlighted the issues of dissemination of the REV system application practices.

Lecturer of the Department of Constitutional Law named after Professor I.E. Farber and Professor V.T. Kabyshev of the Saratov state Academy of Law Yulia Dubrovina spoke on the introduction of technological ways of counting the votes.

Chair of the Youth Election Commission of Saint-Petersburg Maxim Voronin told that the work on informing young voters about the REV system to overcome the skepticism towards this instrument will take place on the platform of the Interregional Young Voter’s Club established in Nizhny Novgorod.

At the end of the meeting participants agreed that the issues of the remote e-voting application requires further discussions, taking into account the experience of the CIS countries as well as exploring the capabilities of modern technologies.