The State Duma approved amendments on non -alternative electronic voting
Amendments to the electoral legislation, establishing the possibility of purely electronic elections – without using paper ballots, on April 1, the first reading in the State Duma passed. The bill caused criticism from the Communists and Socialist -Revolutionaries, who once again expressed distrust of remote electronic voting (DEG). In response, the United Russia criticized the Soviet elections.
Recall that the bill introduced on February 13 by a group of senators and deputies, headed by the chairman of the Committee of the Council of State Construction Andrei Klishas, contains a number of short stories (See “Kommersant” from February 14). This is a refusal to hold the missiles of deputies of all levels per year, preceding the year of the main elections, and the cancellation of the registration of foreign plots to single -member districts in the elections to the State Duma, and the ban on the parties to accept donations from the legal agents established by foreign agents, and much more. But the opposition was most excited by the norm, which allows, by decision of the Central Election Commission or the regional commission, holding elections completely in electronic form.
According to Kommersant, during the discussion of the agenda in the closed part of the meeting, the Communists demanded to withdraw the document from consideration, but did not find support for the majority.
The co -author of the bill Dmitry Lambin (EP) explained its appearance by the need to « comply with the requests of time. » The unicorn emphasized that the priority in the work on electoral law remains « a guideline for transparency and openness of the electoral system. » And Dmitry Vyatkin (EP), who performed from the Duma Committee on State Building, added that “all proposed changes follow directly from the practice of applying electoral legislation” in recent years.
After that, members of the Communist Party faction fell upon speakers with criticism. So, Maria Prusakova said that the bill violates the constitutional right of citizens to the secret of the will, since it is supposedly unknown to whom DEG data can be available. Dmitry Vyatkin said in response that these statements are unfounded. Communist Mikhail Matveev asked in what form an electronic vote would exist. In the same, as always, the unicorn retorted: the terminals on the site are not connected to the Internet, so it is impossible to influence them from the outside. As for DEG, it is observed by specialists who, in which case, will see “attempts to make changes to the program,” Mr. Vyatkin emphasized.
Following Yuri Sinelshchikov (Communist Party) said that DEG is “conducted in conditions of irresponsibility”: no one signs the protocol, which means no one is responsible in case of detected falsification. In response, Dmitry Lambin reminded the communist that “there is an already tested and tested system”, which “works transparently and effectively”. Alexei Kornienko (Communist Party) expressed a concern that the devices from which voters vote were produced abroad, which means “enemies” can control the voting course. Mr. Lameykin replied that the DEG State Duma bill was considered a few years ago, and it was then that the issues of data protection were discussed. He also recalled that a competition was held at the hacking of the DEG system, and not a single hacker could do this.
Finally, Artem Prokofiev (Communist Party) stated that the authors of the bill “propose to destroy the most important element of political culture” – a paper ballot: “Such a gap with the tradition of voting is an adventure with unexploded consequences. What will the citizens have to do with the authorities formed by a couple of clicks? » In response, Dmitry Vyatkin recalled that DEG gives citizens who were forced to leave for another city for urgent matters, the opportunity to realize their suffrage.
“As for traditions, they were different at different times in different countries. This is the lack of the right to vote, for example, in women, ”the uninerussian cut.
Speaking from the Fair Russia faction for the truth, deputy Mikhail Delyagin brought a good argument against DEG: “Remember who campaigned for the reliability of electronic voting? If someone has forgotten, I will remind you: the foreign agent Venediktov Alexei Alekseevich, the foreign agent explained this to us. ” And Alexei Kurinin (Communist Party) stated that the bill “could destroy the remnants of the legitimacy of the electoral process” in Russia. He emphasized that the Communists are “not against technical innovations”, but “against the fact that control over the electoral process is destroyed”. According to Mr. Kurinnoy, all the latest changes in the electoral legislation that were introduced by United Russia were aimed at « complicating the control procedure for elections. »
This attack Dmitry Vyatkin rated the memory of the Soviet elections, when there was one candidate in the ballot, and one member of the family with several passports came to the site. After that, Nikolai Kolomeytsev (the Communist Party) took the word, reminding Mr. Vyatkin that at the time of the last Soviet elections there was 17 years. “But I had the opportunity to come to the site with my parents,” objected Mr. Vyatkin.
As a result, 305 deputies voted for the bill, against 84, there were no abstained.
