A roundtable on the monitoring of the presidential elections in the Russian Federation took place in the Tavricheskiy Palace

A roundtable for the international observers at the presidential elections in the Russian Federation organized by the IPA CIS Council Secretariat was held in the Tavricheskiy Palace.

The roundtable brought together Team Coordinator from the IPA CIS, First Deputy Speaker of the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Ziyafet Asgarov, international observers of the observer team from the IPA CIS, representatives of the election commissions of St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Novgorod regions, Republic of Karelia, Civic Chambers of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, leading experts in the field of electoral processes from Russia and beyond.

Acting Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council, Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Sergey Antufiev noted in his welcome address that the roundtable was hosted as part of the long-term election monitoring and stressed the importance of the expert work of the IIMDD IPA CIS aimed to assist the IPA CIS international observers and improve monitoring performance.

Ziyafet Asgarov spoke about the goals of the team focusing on the features of the long-term and short-term monitoring.

Deputy Head of the Expert Team of the IIMDD IPA CIS Dmitriy Baryshnikov gave a detailed account of all stages of work of the expert team of the IIMDD during the long-term monitoring. IIMDD IPA CIS expert, Advisor of the Constitutional Court Alexey Kartsov informed the participants on the legal analysis of the legal regulation of the presidential elections in the Russian Federation.

The following members of the IPA CIS Observer Team shared their impressions on visiting the Central, the Siberian and the South Federal districts of Russia. The list of observers included Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurbek Satvaldiev, heads of the IIMDD IPA CIS branches – Director of the Baku branch Elman Imamaliyev, Director of the Yerevan branch Vagram Avetisyan, Director of the Bishkek branch Islambek Mursabekov, Director of the Chisinau branch Evgeniy Shtirbu.

Chair of the Election Commission of St. Petersburg Viktor Pankevich, Chair of the Election Commission of the Leningrad region Mikhail Lebedinskiy, Chair of the Election Commission of the Novgorod region Tatiana Lebedeva and Chairof the Election Commission of the Republic of Karelia Aleksey Bakhilin told about the organization of the elections in the remote and inaccessible areas, in the rural areas, as well as about voter awareness-raising.

Head of the Working Group on Performing Civil Society Control on the Suffrage Protection of Citizens in St. Petersburg of the Civic Chamber of St. Petersburg and Chairperson of the Commission on Youth Policy of the Civic Chamber of St. Petersburg Vladimir Shamakhov and Deputy Chairperson of the Civic Chamber of the Leningrad region Vladimir Zhuravlev focused on the issues related to the establishment of civil watch during the presidential elections and stressed the work of their respective bodies.

Regional Coordinator of the civil society movement Observers Corps For Clear Elections in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region Dmitriy Kukhto spoke about the role of the civil-based organization in the field of election monitoring and looked forward to future cooperation with international observers.

Member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Chairman of the Council of the Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law Igor Borisov and Executive Director, Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law Alexandr Ignatov told about challenges of the election monitoring and the key trends of the development on the example of the OSCE ODIHR.

Professor of the St. Petersburg State University Yuriy Akimov wrapped up the roundtable presenting the book by Professor of St. Petersburg State University Stanislav Tkachenko titled Presidential Authority as an Institution from the series Electoral processes in the Commonwealth countries.