Voice review: public activists will send more than 50 thousand observers to the elections

The system of public control over elections is ready for a single voting day. More than 50,000 observers will be sent from the Public Chambers of the Russian Federation to the polling stations, Alyona Bulgakova, executive director of the Independent Public Monitoring Association, told Izvestia. The parties are also training their activists to control the vote — we are talking about thousands of people. They will monitor all forms of voting, including electronic voting. The electoral system is ready for provocations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said CEC Chairman Ella Pamfilova. The information about how many people will express their will online and what innovations are planned this time is in the Izvestia article.

How observers will work during the elections

On September 12, elections will start in 81 regions of the Russian Federation, which will last until Sunday. Russians will elect governors in 20 regions, deputies to legislative assemblies in 11 more regions, and representatives to municipal authorities in 25 cities. In total, more than 5,000 campaigns of various levels are planned. More than 49.5 thousand polling stations, as well as 42 election commissions, will be created for the EDG, said the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova.

More than 50,000 public observers will be sent to the polling stations, Alena Bulgakova, chairman of the CC RF Commission for public control and handling of citizens' appeals, executive director of the NOM, told Izvestia. At the same time, 72,879 observers have been trained in 56 regions of Russia under the educational program of the Association for Independent Public Monitoring and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

"The public monitoring infrastructure is fully ready for the EDG, regional public headquarters will conduct constant monitoring of the vote, they participated in the training of observers, will keep in touch with them all voting days, respond to signals about unusual situations and publicly give an objective assessment," Bulgakova said.

Voice intrigues: a wave of hacker attacks is expected in Russia by the beginning of the elections

The authorities declare the readiness of the DEG system to work effectively throughout the campaign.

According to her, public control will cover all forms of voting: at traditional polling stations, at home, at extraterritorial PECS and during additional forms of voting in border regions. The operation of the remote electronic voting system (DEG) will also be constantly monitored.

Earlier it became known that by the beginning of EDG-2025, a peak of hacker attacks is expected on DEG. At the same time, it is much more difficult to deceive the system than a person, political analyst Dmitry Zhuravlev told Izvestia. In his opinion, outside pressure from hackers is inevitable, since the election results are seen as an indicator of support for the government, and even in the smallest cities, the outcome of the vote is of great political importance.

This year, more than 1.7 million Russians from 24 regions have applied to participate in online voting, said CEC Chairman Ella Pamfilova. According to her, the need for DEG is growing, and in five regions of the Russian Federation it will be used for the first time: in North Ossetia, Udmurtia, Kurgan, Magadan and Samara regions. At the same time, the CEC has no plans to abandon the traditional voting system in the future. Pamfilova added that the system is also ready to repel fraud attacks: "We are working in conditions of unprecedented cyber attacks, unprecedented wars that are taking place not only directly on the battlefronts, but also on electoral, informational, and psychological ones."

As for the observers, all data from them will be sent to the situation center of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and to the expert center of the Association of NOM and IWG of the Human Rights Council, said Alena Bulgakova.

—We have created a reliable system for rapid response to possible problems, we take into account the realities in which we find ourselves, therefore, our program includes algorithms for responding in case of possible lack of Internet," she said.

Observers are sent not only by public organizations, but also by parties participating in the elections. For example, about 60,000 activists from the Communists will control the electoral process, Yuri Afonin, first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.

"If we take the entire array, we get around 60,000 of our communists, activists who are involved in the control and work of election commissions throughout the country," he said.

United Russia plans to send at least two observers to each of the more than 49,000 polling stations across the country, Senator Sergei Perminov, a member of the party's general council, said earlier.

Provocations by the Ukrainian Armed Forces

118 extraterritorial polling stations will be opened in 19 regions, where about 175 thousand people will be able to cast their votes. This procedure is connected, among other things, with the fact that a difficult situation continues to persist in a number of subjects. Because of this, for example, in Kamchatka and the Kursk region, it is allowed to vote outside the premises, in the adjacent territories.

The electoral system is also ready for attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which are designed to intimidate local residents, Pamfilova is sure. For example, in regions where there may be problems with network access, PEC premises are equipped with computers with stable Internet access. Nevertheless, 53 election campaigns had to be postponed due to the difficult situation in the Kursk region.

There have been some innovations this year. For example, electronic voting will be used for the first time in eight pre-trial detention centers in Moscow. 77 sites in 29 regions of the Russian Federation will also be ready for prisoners. In addition, a psychological support line has been set up for all CEC members.

As for the parties, candidates from 19 of the 23 political forces will participate at all levels. For them, EDG-2025 will be the main rehearsal before the State Duma elections. "For the parties, this is an opportunity to test not only the work of specific federal headquarters and regional cells, but also to test the ideological base for 2026," Ruslan Andreev, an expert at the Polylogue Group and a political strategist, told Izvestia.

— We see that the social agenda is being updated in a new way. The issues of supporting the participants of the SVO, the work of public utilities, and inflation are becoming more acute. Voters demand real answers and solutions to them, not slogans and unrealistic promises," the expert noted.

Thus, this EDG will be a test of strength, leaving the parties the right to make mistakes, which they will be able to correct in a year at the State Duma elections.