Ella Pamfilova: “In order for the entire electoral mechanism to work like a clock, it is necessary to introduce new electoral standards based on high technologies”

On 6 September 2019, the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Digitalization of Electoral Processes. Humanitarian dimension.”

Opening the event, the Chairperson of the CEC of Russia Ella Pamfilova said that the Conference was attended by representatives of 35 states and 7 international organizations.

“We are all witnessing a real digital revolution today. Today we would like to share our experience in the field of digitalization of the electoral process,” the head of the Central Election Commission said.

The First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Sergei Kiriyenko addressed the conference participants. At the beginning of his speech, he read the greeting of the President of Russia to the Conference participants.

“You are going to discuss a wide range of issues related to improving legislation and law enforcement practice, and, of course, share experiences gained in a significant field like the use of advanced digital technology, which opens up entirely new opportunities for developing direct democracy and public control institutions, improving the transparency of the election procedure, and taking into account the interests and opinions of each voter”, the greeting says. “At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that even in the age of rapid technological changes, key principles such as openness and legitimacy of elections at all levels, fair competition, dialogue and respect for the opponents, as well as the unconditional value of the citizens' rights and freedoms retain their key value.”

Sergei Kiriyenko emphasized: “Everyone should have the opportunity to vote with minimal bureaucratic procedures and with minimal waste of their own time and other restrictions associated with this. A prerequisite here, of course, is the maximum exclusion of any subjective factor, of the possibility of interference, and even of just making mistakes."

Sergei Kiriyenko recalled that the conference is taking place on the eve of the single voting day. “On 8 September, Russia will host about 6 thousand elections at various levels. You will see the use of digital technologies in the course of a real election campaign,” said Sergey Kirienko, addressing the guests of the conference.

He thanked of the personnel of the Central Election Commission of Russia, the election commissions of the regions, as well as personally the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, for their work during the current campaign.

“The course of election campaigns requires not only a brilliant knowledge of laws and the entire law enforcement practice, not only sufficiently deep technological knowledge of modern digital processes, not only the highest decency, personal decency, but, to be honest, sometimes even personal courage. And this causes great respect "- said Sergey Kiriyenko.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, addressing the participants in the conference, noted that people live in the world of Internet, information technology, and electronic services, and the traditional way of voting is less and less clear to them.

“We initiated in the parliament a law on an experiment on remote electronic voting in Moscow. This is not a full-scale experiment, we are talking about three districts. Nevertheless, this is a very important story that should answer whether such a technology can exist, whether it can attract voters or not, " said the Mayor of Moscow.

Sergei Sobyanin emphasized that experimenting in the field of elections is extremely difficult, since this is an established classical system.

“But experimentation is possible and necessary. These elections should make the procedure simple and attractive, guarantee the secrecy of voting and vote counting. This was achieved using unique solutions and technologies,” said Sergei Sobyanin. “I must say that in addition to electronic voting, Moscow there exists a voting standard for a long time, which also includes a system of total video surveillance of all polling stations, "said the Mayor.

Ella Pamfilova emphasized: "In order for the entire electoral mechanism to work like a clock, it is necessary to introduce new electoral standards based on high technologies."

The international conference continues its work.