The chairwoman of Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, assured this Thursday that the country will hold local and regional elections from September 12 to 14 despite “the conditions of war”.
“We are working in conditions of unprecedented cyberattacks and war, which take place not only directly on the combat fronts, but also on the electoral, informational and psychological fronts. Therefore, it is necessary to have security measures using traditional methods of organizing the vote,” Pamfilova explained at a press conference, quoted by the TASS agency.
Thus, the public servant clarified that in the face of attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 6,589 alternative voting venues have been enabled in the border regions to ensure that citizens of eight Russian regions can vote safely.
These regions are the southern Krasnodar, Belgorod, Kursk, Rostov, Bryansk, Voronezh, the city of Sevastopol and the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
“We must be able to hold elections even in the most extreme conditions,” he noted.
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Therefore, Pamfilova insisted that they will not abandon “traditional electoral elements”, “if necessary, even in conditions of isolation, without electricity, communication or internet”.
The election will begin on Friday and will last until Sunday in 81 regions of the Russian Federation.
In addition to the annual municipal elections, the governors of 20 regions will be directly elected, and in one, the relevant assembly will elect them.
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The southern Russian regions, especially those bordering Ukraine, are suffering daily attacks with Ukrainian drones whose primary objective is to neutralize the energy production capacity that fuels Russia’s war machine, but which have also caused civilian casualties.
