#10 - JRL 7301
gazeta.ru
August 26, 2003
Cameras to be given access to polling stations
By Yelena Rudneva
A Central Election Commission session on Monday adopted a decree allowing anyone who happens to be at polling stations on the day of voting, be it observers, representative of candidates, or journalists, to take photos and film voters. Electoral officials hope that the move will help prevent any falsifications during the processing of voting results.
In the run-up to the parliamentary elections, due in December this year, the CEC approved a set of rules for electoral officials on the single procedure of processing ballot papers and drawing up protocols for the voting results.
The most heated debate at the session flared up when the CEC members discussed the provision permitting not only journalists to take photos and film polling stations but also observers, candidates and their aides.
The new version of the law on guarantees of electoral rights for citizens contains no regulations as to who exactly is authorized to film and take photos during voting and the counting of votes. During previous elections only television journalists were allowed to do so, but aides, or authorized representatives, of certain candidates tried to evade the ban and to film the counting to obtain evidence of possible cheating.
New regulations allow the CEC members, authorized representatives of parties and candidates running for seats in single-mandate constituencies, observers, and foreigner observers to take photos and film during voting.
CEC members representing the opposition parties protested against the changes. For instance, Yelena Dubrovina said she fears that such measure would become an additional instrument of exerting pressure on voters. Yevgeny Kolyushin of the Communist Party noted that cameramen would be trying to get into the voting booth, thus violating the secrecy of voting. However, the CEC chairman Alexander Veshnyakov dispelled those fears, reminding his colleagues that electoral regulations explicitly ban filming voters inside the booths.
Most CEC members backed Veshnyakov and the secretary of the committee, Olga Zastrozhnaya, agreed that though in some cases cameras may scare voters, at the same time it will mean any violations can be registered.
The CEC also plans to have a number of polling stations equipped with electronic scanners that will detect falsified papers put into ballot boxes. According to Alexander Veshnyakov, such devices will be tested during the governor’s election in the Leningrad Region. By December of this year 500 scanners will have been installed at polling stations in Moscow, St Petersburg, Dagestan and Bashkortostan. The electoral authorities plan to have 1000 such devices installed at polling stations throughout the country before the presidential elections next March.
Also on Monday the CEC suggested combining the governor’s election in the Sakhalin Region with the parliamentary election. In connection with the tragic death of Igor Farkhutdinov in a helicopter crash last week, the early elections of the new governor may be held simultaneously with elections to the State Duma on December 7. ''This is for the lawmakers of the Sakhalin Region to decide,'' said Veshnyakov. Touching upon the pre-election situation in Chechnya, Veshnyakov said that 11 presidential candidates have submitted documents for registration. After the documents have been examined, the republic's election commission will make the final decision on registration by August 30.
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