Appeal of Vladimir E. Churov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, to users of the CEC official Internet site

Dear Internet users! I would like to welcome you on the official site of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation (CEC). Here you will find comprehensive information on all issues connected to the CEC of Russia activities.

Official stance of the CEC of Russia, information on key issues, interviews and addresses of the CEC of Russia members are published in section “Relevant news”.  News of the most important events held in the CEC of Russia, election commissions of the subjects of the Russian Federation is published in sections “News of the CEC of Russia” and “News from regions” on a daily basis. These sections information can be obtained via RSS.

The CEC of Russia follows the policy of total information transparency. All resolutions passed by the CEC of Russia are published in section “Documents of the CEC of Russia”. Sessions of the CEC of Russia are broadcasted on the site in life standup mode, and their recorded versions are stored in “Archive of video broadcasts of the CEC of Russia sessions”. 

The official site of the CEC of Russia allows each Internet user addressing us with a question, claim or suggestion by filling an “Electronic form of addressing the CEC of Russia”.

Relevant versions of Federal and Federal Constitutional Laws and other normative legal acts on the issues of elections and referenda are published in section “Election and referendum legislation”. This section also contains legislative drafts submitted for consideration of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, decisions of courts of the Russian Federation on election disputes.

Section “Elections and referenda information» provides with an opportunity to obtain the data from the database of the State Automated System of the Russian Federation “Vybory” on every election conducted in our country. Using the links system you can be easily redirected from the CEC of Russia official site to a site of any of 83 election commissions of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

During federal elections, single voting days in the subjects of the Russian Federation specialized sections (banners) are created on the official site of the CEC of Russia providing comprehensive information on preparation, conduct and results of elections.

The site also contains a specialized resource for users with hearing imparity. Information that might be of interest to young and future voters is published in youth section. English version of the site is created for foreign users. 

Dear users!

I would like to give a few comments on the results of the federal election cycle of 2011 – 2012.  

Election of deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the Sixth convocation was conducted on December 4, 2011. 65,774,462 voters or 60.21 percent of total number of voters in the voters’ lists took part in the election. Election ballot included names of all seven registered political parties. By the voting day 2,999 candidates were included into these parties’ federal lists. Preparation and conduct of parliamentary election was carried out with account of amendments introduced to the Russian election legislation.

On December 9, 2011 the CEC of Russia passed the Resolution No. 70/576-6 “On the Results of Election of Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the Sixth Convocation” (published in “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on December 10, 2011). The following parties passed the 7-percent barrier and were admitted to distribution of deputy seats: All-Russian Political Party “UNITED RUSSIA” – 32,379,135 votes (49.32 % of total number of voters), 238 seats; Political Party “Communist Party of the Russian Federation” – 12,599,507 votes (19.19 %), 92 seats; Political Party FAIR RUSSIA – 8,695,522 votes (13.24 %), 64 seats; Political Party “Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia” – 7,664,570 votes (11.67 %), 56 seats.

Over 2,800 elections of various levels and local referenda were conducted on December 4, 2011 together with the parliamentary election including election of deputies of legislative (representative) state power bodies in 27 subjects of the Russian Federation.

Election of the President of the Russian Federation was conducted on March 4, 2012. 71,780,800 voters or 65.34 percent of total number of voters in voters’ lists took part in the election.  On March 7, 2012 the CEC of Russia passed the Resolution No.112/893-6 “On Results of the Election of the President of the Russian Federation” (published in “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on March 8, 2012). The majority of voters – 45,602,075, or 63.6 percent, voted for the candidacy of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Additionally about 4 thousand elections to local self-government bodies and local referenda were conducted on March 4, 2012, including six campaigns for election of heads of municipal formations and six campaigns for election of deputies of representative bodies of municipal formations in administrative centers of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Federal elections of 2011-2012 became an important stage of activity aimed at technical re-equipment of electoral system. During each election campaign at over five thousand precincts in the territory of the Russian Federation and in several foreign countries technical means of ballot counting were used – ballot processing complexes (BPC) and electronic voting complexes (EVC).

During the election of the President of the Russian Federation a unique system of video monitoring of the voting process was used. Live broadcasts were organized at over 90 thousand election precincts all over the country. On the voting day webvybory2012.ru portal was visited 500 million times. Maximum number of simultaneous views amounted to 450,000 during the voting time and 270,000 views during the vote counting.  

I believe that the elections conducted on December 4, 2011 and March 4, 2012 in terms of their organization level, technical equipment used for vote counting, transparency and openness of electoral procedures, public awareness level comply with international electoral standards.

This year political system of our country will undergo a reform. Its main directions include direct election of higher officials of the subjects of the Russian Federation, simplification of political parties registration, cancellation of signatures collected by political parties that want to participate in any election except the election of the President of the Russian Federation, reduction of the number of signatures required for participation in the election of the President for candidates nominated by political parties that are not represented in the State Duma and self-nominated candidates, change of the system of election to the State Duma that will include division of the country territory into 225 territorial units and creation of regional groups of federal lists of candidates in accordance with such division which will allow each territory having its direct representative in the parliament. Innovations that provide for the election transparency will be set out in the legislation: equipping polling stations with video monitoring and video broadcasting means, right of observers to photo and video recording in polling stations.  

Dear users! I invite you to become frequent visitors of the official site of the CEC of Russia that provides you with unique and reliable information on elections in the Russian Federation, on activities of the CEC of Russia and election commissions of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Churov