Party members will be able to watch the elections on “Gosuslugah”

This year, parties and candidates participating in the elections will be able to register their observers for remote electronic voting (DEV) through the State Services portal

Previously, this option was available only to self-nominated candidates, but in order to prepare for the regional elections in 2023, the portal has been finalized. Now it will also be possible to get access to a special portal only through the “Gosuslugi”, where the recording from CCTV cameras at regular polling stations will be broadcast. These solutions will greatly simplify the process of organizing and participating in the electoral process.

According to the information provided at the first meeting of experts on the DEG on July 19 by Ivan Kireev, Deputy Head of the Department for Promising Solutions of the Department of Innovative Technologies in the Electoral Process of the Central Election Commission (CEC), political parties and self-nominated candidates will be able to register their observers through the State Services portal using the Unified System account identification and authentication.

Such a portal will allow voting on the federal DEG platform, developed in partnership with Rostelecom, the CEC and the Ministry of Digital Development. The platform has been in use since 2020 and will be used in 24 regions in September 2023. Online voting will also be organized for the Moscow mayoral elections, however, the capital already has its own platform, which has been used since 2019.

Oleg Artamonov, deputy chairman of the territorial election commission (TEC) of the DEG, explained that previously the option to register online observers through the State Services portal was available only to self-nominated candidates. The reason was that the portal had information about the status of self-nominated candidates, and parties could not use this method to appoint their observers.

However, by the 2023 elections, the mechanism will be improved, and the Gosuslug portal will have information about the powers of party representatives to appoint observers.

The introduction of such a mechanism will significantly simplify and automate the process of forming observer lists for both parties and DEG territorial election commissions, since previously these lists were compiled manually, Mr. Artamonov noted.

This is not the only improvement offered by the State Services before the upcoming elections. At a meeting of the CEC on July 12, it was decided that access to a special portal with video broadcasts from polling stations would also be provided through the portal.

Before the 2021 State Duma elections, the CEC introduced a system where broadcasts from CCTV cameras at polling stations were carried out on a special portal with limited access provided to parties, candidates and public organizations engaged in election observation. In 2021 and 2022, access to the video surveillance portal was provided by the CEC.

“All these changes are for the better, as the work becomes much more efficient for everyone,” summed up Mr. Artamonov.

Also at the meeting of DEG experts, Oleg Artamonov announced the presentation of the first standard for monitoring DEG, developed by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (PC RF). According to him, the presentation will take place on July 21, after which the standard will be distributed throughout hzikhidtidekrt regions.

The document will be a collection of questions that allow the observer to identify various violations.