The Golos Movement about significant shortcomings in the procedure of all-Russian voting

Statement of significant shortcomings of the proposed nationwide voting procedure

The Golos Movement is concerned that the proposed nationwide voting procedure lacks a number of essential guarantees to ensure the credibility of the voting results. The procedure is based on the draft of Law of the Russian Federation on Amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation "On Improvement of Regulation of Certain Issues of Organization and Functioning of Public Authority" and the draft of Procedure for Preparation and Holding of All-Russian Voting on Approval of Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation prepared by Central Election Commission. This abovementioned set of guarantees has been developed by the Russian legislator over the past 20 years and is included in the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation."

The proposed procedure has significant shortcomings that will not reveal the real opinion of the citizens regarding the amendments to the Constitution, the fundamental law governing our lives.

The main shortcomings are:

1. There are unrelated amendments put to the vote in one matter.
2. There is no prohibition for officials to use advantages or official position and for public authorities and election commissions to participate in the agitation.
3. It is not possible to appoint observers from organizations representing different segments of society. The appointment of observers has been monopolized by public chambers formed by the authorities.
4. There is no guarantee of the use of video observation in all regions and in a large number of polling stations.
5. The use of various types of voting, which hardly can be under public control, such as early voting, voting at home, and distant voting, expands the possibilities for falsification. At the same time, the control procedures used in elections and referendums and guaranteeing the openness and transparency of the process are not provided for that voting.
6. The number of ballots submitted to the commission is not restricted, and that can lead to malfeasance.
7. The voting results report is truncated compared to the traditional report in elections and referendums. It will not allow to obtain information about magnitude of specific types of voting (early voting, voting outside the voting premises).

These shortcomings of the all-Russian voting procedure in the future will lead to irreparable doubts that the results of voting reflect the real will of Russian citizens.