Press Release, 30.07.2021

Hand of a person casting a ballot at a polling station during voting.

Photo by bizoon/depositphotos

The Saratov branch of Yabloko, Golos (a movement engaged in independent elections observation)  and other independent observers have joined together to form Civic Control, a coordination centre for election observation and monitoring of violations, which also sets the task of encouraging citizens to become independent observers, and training of observers. The Saratov branch of Yabloko, in turn, promises to send all observers from the Civic Control to polling stations from Yabloko (as only political parties and mass media can send observers).

At the first meeting, which was held in the Yabloko party office, the participants agreed to hold several introductory lectures for observers in a stream format in August. In September, the lectures will deal with the monitoring process and the Russian legislation regulating it. These lectures will be held offline.

The first stream with the participation of Kirill Rumyantsev, Coordinator of “Civil Control” in Saratov, and electoral lawyer Denis Rudenko, was devoted to the specifics of the elections in Saratov, taking into account the three-day voting and the coronavirus epidemic.

At the federal level, the coordination centre for election observation Civic Control, was established earlier this year with participation of Nikolai Svanidze, a TV journalist, Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director of the human rights project “For Human Rights”, Alexander Kynev, expert of the Liberal Mission Foundation, Grigory Melkonyants, Co-Chairman of the Golos movement, and Alexander Efimov, head of the headquarters of observers from the Yabloko party.

In addition to the Saratov region, regional joint election observation centres have been created in 22 more regions of Russia.