The vote on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation was held freely and as democratic as possible, its results are reliable, and their legitimacy is indisputable, the Chairman of the CEC of the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova stated on Friday at a meeting of the Central Election Commission, where the results of the vote were summed up.
"The vote was held as openly as possible, as evidenced by an unprecedented number of observers, safe from all points of view, not only sanitary and epidemiological, we also provided security in all aspects. All our citizens had the opportunity to freely express their will in the way and in the form that they preferred, because we offered a fairly wide range of opportunities both in the form of voting and in time, by type and place," she explained.
According to Pamfilova, the vote was held "as democratic as possible", as evidenced by the fact that representatives of various political forces worked in the election commissions, as well as observers.
"The very state of quality and composition of [election] commissions confirms this: we have a huge number of diverse parties represented in commissions at all levels, several dozen, and the commissions themselves already represent a cross-section of society that shows its state, political and other aspects," the head of the Central Election Commission explained.
She noted that among the observers who monitored the voting were representatives of 18 political parties, more than 1,600 public organizations, more than 30 NGOs, "citizens of different faiths and political views, who signed up and became observers." "The voting procedure itself is an expression of direct democracy," the CEC Chair added.
She also recalled that in the process of preparing for the vote, "everyone had the opportunity to openly campaign for and against, discuss amendments", for which "a lot of platforms" were created. "Everyone who wanted to, took advantage of it," Pamfilova is sure.
The results are reliable and indisputable
"As a result, we can state that the voting data is reliable, and the legitimacy of the voting results is indisputable," the CEC Chair said.
She explained that the determination of the voting results was carried out by all election commissions: precinct, including foreign and in Baikonur, territorial, including the Commission for remote electronic voting, and all 85 election commissions of the Russian Federation subjects. "The results have been established, the protocols have been submitted by all 85 subject commissions and signed by all lower-level commissions. Such protocols, which make today a basis of a Pivot Table of the CEC, signed by 96 of 765 thousand at the level of precinct election commissions, including commissions abroad and at Baikonur, 2 771 thousand at the level of territorial commissions, 85 - level election commissions of subjects of the Russian Federation," Pamfilova said.
After that, the CEC of the Russian Federation confirmed a resolution approving the results of the all-Russian vote on the law on the amendment to the Constitution. According to the document, the amendments were supported by 77.92% of the voters, and 21.27% opposed the changes to the basic law. The final turnout was 67.97%.
Pamfilova also expressed gratitude to all those "who honestly and conscientiously worked all this time for the sake of the development and prosperity of the country, on duty and consciousness of their civil mission, took part in the preparation and conduct of this difficult, but a truly epoch-making event".
"We can draw the main conclusion: we have coped with the main tasks that we outlined during the campaign, together with observers, law enforcement officers, and the media," she said, expressing the opinion that the most important thing was that all this activity "was supported by the citizens of Russia themselves."
The head of the CEC addressed special thanks to the Russians who "took part in the all-Russian vote and expressed their will".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS