Earlier, Deputy
Chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission Dmitry Reut told TASS that
around 180 polling stations in the capital were organized at temporary
locations, with the majority of them at medical facilities.
MOSCOW, June 25.
/TASS/. The observation of the vote on the amendments to the Russian
Constitution throughout Moscow’s medical facilities, even at COVID-19 clinics,
is being organized with the participation of medical personnel from these
hospitals, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Civic Chamber Alexei Venediktov told
the reporters on Thursday.
Earlier, Deputy
Chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission Dmitry Reut told TASS that
around 180 polling stations in the capital were organized at temporary
locations, with the majority of them at medical facilities. These polling
stations are also located in hospitals where patients with the coronavirus
infection are being treated.
"The issues of
how the voting at hospitals should be dealt with and how to go about monitoring
the vote were discussed. Obviously, there a lot of places infected with
coronavirus. The observers were ready to go there, and in Moscow there are 139
such sites at medical and non-COVID-19 [facilities], at hospitals and maternity
clinics. Overall, there are 3,621 polls in Moscow. <...> the monitors
could have been supplied with everything necessary, the observers themselves
were ready, but at [the monitoring] headquarters we decided not to send the
outside observers to the polls at medical facilities and maternity wards. If
they have polling stations there, we suggested that the doctors and nurses
should serve as the observers there," the official said.
He specified that
observers were not dispatched to the polling stations located in medical
institutions so as to prevent the spread of the infection.
"There is
another category of polling stations — pre-trial detention centers. There our
colleagues from the Public Monitoring Commission are assisting us. We are
keeping in touch with them, and previous experience demonstrates that our
colleagues from the commission are doing a great job and report to us on all
the situations that unfold there. Everything is very well-organized there due
to the specifics of the location," added Vadim Kovalev, first deputy head
of the Public Center for Control and Monitoring of the All-Russian Vote, and
the superintendent of the observers’ corps.
About the vote
The nationwide vote
to amend the Russian Constitution started on Thursday, June 25 in all regions
of Russia. The primary date to vote according to the decree of Russian
President Vladimir Putin is July 1, but Russians can also cast their ballots
during the week of June 25 to June 30. According to the directive of the
Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the polls will be open
from June 25 to July 1 from 8 am to 8 pm local time in all Russian regions, the
vote count will take place after 8 pm local time on July 1 for all seven days
of voting.
Initially, the vote
on the amendments to the Constitution was set to take place on April 22, but it
was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. On June 1, at a meeting with the
Central Election Commission leadership and the members of the working group on
the amendments, Putin supported the proposal to hold the vote on July 1, later
signing the corresponding decree.
In addition to voting
before the primary date (June 25-30), constituents can also cast ballots
outside of polling stations (including outdoor areas), use contactless voting
at home, or remote electronic voting for some regions, and cast ballots at
one’s place of residence using the Mobile Voter application. Additionally, the
residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region on June 5-21 applied to cast
their electronic ballots remotely. The Central Election Commission accepted
over 1 mln applications from Muscovites and over 140,000 from Nizhny Novgorod
residents. The remote electronic vote will be held June 25-30.
Source: ITAR-TASS
25-06-2020
