Russia: 'I knew, but I didn't tell'- Pamfilova about Putin's online voting

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Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Russia (CEC) Ella Pamfilova said that she knew that President Vladimir Putin would vote remotely in the State Duma deputies elections but avoided mentioning it due to cyber-attack fears, speaking during a commission meeting in Moscow on Friday.

“Of course, I knew about this, but I didn’t say it, because did you see what examples of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks we gave today? This information could be an additional catalyst for those who would try to bring down the system,” said Pamfilova.

In addition, during the meeting, Pamfilova announced that the turnout for the State Duma elections in the country as of 16:00 Moscow time (13:00 GMT) was 9.16 percent. According to Pamfilova, the maximum turnout was registered in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug with 31.39 percent, and the minimum-in Sevastopol and Moscow with 0.76 and 0.48 percent, respectively.

Ella Pamfilova specified that the turnout data were given without taking into account remote electronic voting held in seven regions across the country.

The alleged stuffing of ballots at the polling station 3667 in Balashikha caught on a video surveillance camera was also discussed.

“It is impossible to say unequivocally that this is a provocation or a full-fledged stuffing right now,” said Ilya Berezkin, chairperson of the election commission of Moscow Oblast.

“For the period of these events, a member of the commission, who was seen in the video, was suspended from working in the commission,” added Berezkin.

The video of a man in a ballot-paper suit, who was removed by police from a polling station in Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg, and the video of a raccoon caught in the premises of a precinct election commission in Moscow were shown during the meeting.

Russia’s 2021 legislative elections are set to take place on September 19, with voting to run across three days, starting on September 17. Voters will elect 450 State Duma deputies via two methods as per Russia’s mixed electoral system. Half will be selected from party lists in one federal constituency, with the other 225 elected in single-mandate constituencies under the first-past-the-post voting system.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Ella Pamfilova, Chairperson of Central Election Commission of Russia (Russian): “The turnout as of 16:00, now, please output, for the Russian Federation, in general, to the State Duma elections as a whole are 9.16 percent, the maximum turnout is the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, which was expected, they started voting earlier, 31.39 percent, in the Chechen Republic 27.1, the Tyva Republic 26.21. The minimum turnout is the city of St. Petersburg, which is also not surprising- 3.72 percent, the city of Sevastopol 0.76, the city of Moscow 0.48. Let me remind you that this is the turnout at polling stations without considering the turnout by remote electronic voting. If we talk about remote electronic voting, these are also, yes, fresh data, for 16 hours. The Kursk region is 55.46 percent, in the Murmansk region-59.27 percent, the Nizhny Novgorod region-47.17 percent, Rostov 50.12 percent, Yaroslavl-63.05 percent, Sevastopol-46.63 percent, and Moscow 36.01 percent.”

SOT, Ella Pamfilova, Chairperson of Central Election Commission of Russia (Russian): “On early voting, that is, we had early voting on August 29. For certain categories of voters, that is, early voting on the elections to the State Duma were held. As of yesterday, about 225 thousand voters have used this right.”

SOT, Ella Pamfilova, Chairperson of Central Election Commission of Russia (Russian): “We saw that, unfortunately, there were queues at some sites, that the sanitary distance was not very observed. We reacted quickly; this is unacceptable. Colleagues, look carefully. If you see that a queue is forming, then take additional measures to call people, mark them so that the distance is observed.”

SOT, Ella Pamfilova, Chairperson of Central Election Commission of Russia (Russian): “The team Pivovar telegram channel announces a stuffing at the site number 3667 in Balashikha. A commission member with the right to vote gave a man in a black jacket several ballots from each stack. Such information was in the telegram channel. The video is attached. Please, then we need to withdraw the commission. Is the commission ready, Moscow Region? Please give me the video. What’s there? What video was in the telegram channel? Here, we see a man in a black jacket, yes. Yes, here Ilya Sergeyevich appeared. I think you have to be a crazy young girl to do something unworthy under a video, under the camera. Well, let’s see now, yes, what is there.”

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