Three-day voting in the elections to the State Duma started in Russia

The first polling stations were opened in the Kamchatka Territory and the Chukotka Autonomous District. This happened at 8:00 local time, when it was 23:00 on September 16 in Moscow.

“Later, sites were opened in the regions of the Far East, Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region", - notes Kommersant.

The three-day vote was introduced in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. The authorities explained that this format is intended to prevent a large overcrowding of people at polling stations, which could provoke the spread of infection.

From 17 to 19 September inclusive, polling stations will be open daily from 8:00 to 20:00 local time. The citizens of the country will have to elect a new composition of the State Duma of the 8th convocation, which will include 450 deputies. Of these, 225 deputies are elected in single-mandate constituencies, each of which will be represented in the Duma by one deputy, and another 225 deputies from political parties. They are elected in the federal district in proportion to the number of votes cast for the lists of candidates. Parties that have not received the minimum required 5% of the vote will not enter the Duma, the votes cast for their lists will be proportionally distributed among the race leaders who have overcome the 5% threshold.

3812 candidates from 14 parties were registered in the 2021 elections. Simultaneously with the deputies of the State Duma in nine constituent entities, heads of regions will be elected (in Mordovia, Tuva, Chechnya, Khabarovsk Territory, Belgorod, Penza, Tver, Tula, Ulyanovsk regions).

In another 39 regions, deputies of regional, territorial and republican legislative assemblies are elected. At the same time, in Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia and North Ossetia, heads of regions will not be elected directly by citizens, but by deputies of the Legislative Assembly on the proposal of the president. In several pilot regions, voting will take place not in person, but online. In particular, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his intention to vote electronically.

The authorities, citing the coronavirus pandemic, are actively encouraging voters to vote remotely, promising prizes for this. At the same time, a number of regions are already receiving complaints about the impending fraud during online voting. In particular, some employees of budgetary organizations are illegally demanded by the authorities to disclose the logins and passwords from personal accounts on public services "to ensure participation in elections."

Almost half a million (413,616) candidate observers and 16 political parties will monitor the cleanliness of the elections across the country. It is also expected that 249 international observers from 55 countries will attend the elections. Initially, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) planned to send 500 representatives to the elections to Russia: 80 long-term and 420 short-term observers. However, the Russian authorities, citing the coronavirus pandemic, have set a quota for international observers to send a total of no more than 60 people. Then the ODTHR generally refused to participate in observing the September elections in the Russian Federation.

Many observers recommend that citizens visit polling stations not on additional dates on September 17 and 18, but only on the main voting day on September 19, citing the fact that at night from 20.00 to 8.00 the polling stations will be closed, and observers will not be able to monitor the inviolability of ballot boxes. voting. In this regard, they do not guarantee that, in the absence of independent observers, the ballot boxes will not be opened, and there will be no unauthorized stuffing of ballots for this or that party or candidate.