Yabloko Bureau statement, 30.05.2019

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law “On conducting an experiment on the organisation and implementation of remote electronic voting at the elections of deputies of the Moscow City Duma of the seventh convocation”.

The proposed system of remote electronic voting is a “black box”, which does not allow for ensuring the citizens’ right to secret voting. The source code of the system is closed. There are no guarantees that there are loopholes specially left inside the code, with the help of which voting results can be either identified or distorted.

In the situation of non-transparency of the electoral system of Russia, lack of mechanisms of control over implementation of electronic voting by the public, its implementation will not have a positive impact on the honesty and openness of the process of expression of the will by citizens and will create additional loopholes for fraud in the upcoming elections. There are serious concerns about lack of guarantees that the codes of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people from the State Services system will not get to some persons interested in a particular result.

The Yabloko party, supporting the idea of ​​electronic voting in general, has to note that the emergency regime of legislative activities of federal and city parliamentarians in the promotion of the remote electronic voting system and its closed nature not only discredits the idea of ​​electronic voting, but also questions the legitimacy of the next Moscow City Duma.

Similar projects appear on the threshold of each election. Thus, the government creates an artificial rush around them, replacing the presence of real opposition in elections and in parliament by technological innovations. Maximum touch conditions have been created for candidates, including the need to collect a large number of signatures of district residents [in favour of their nomination a mandatory requirement to be registered in the race, virtually representing a barrier for registration of candidates] in a short time, comparable to the victory in the elections.

We are certain that the apathy of voters is not so much connected with the voting calendar, as with the unwillingness of people to participate in elections, the results of which are predetermined in advance, by cutting off opposition candidates, distrust to a non-transparent and closed system where votes can be counted as beneficial to the authorities. The elections are really scheduled for an extremely inconvenient time, the campaign falls on the holiday season, but this issue can be easily solved by shifting the election date to October.

The tricks in the counting of votes do not change the essence of the election. We are convinced that raising interest in the elections, both in Moscow and throughout the country, can only be done by abandoning artificial barriers and filters, creating a system in which citizens will know that they will not be deceived, that every vote counts and decides the fate of the district and the cities where voters live.

The Yabloko party demands to abandon the experiment on the organisation and implementation of remote electronic voting at the elections of deputies of the Moscow City Duma of the seventh convocation, shift the single voting day to a later date and ensure fair and competitive elections to the Moscow parliament.

Emilia Slabunova,

Yabloko Chair