Ella Pamfillova, Chairwoman of the Russian Central Election Commission, and Hossam Zaki, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League signed an agreement on cooperation in the electoral field.
‘It is very important that the organization with a responsible international stance is becoming our partner. We hope that the Arab League as observers will be able to objectively assess the upcoming State Duma elections and make sure the election system is transparent and the elections are competitive’, Pamfilova was quoted by the press service of the Central Election Commission on Thursday.
The head of the Central Election Commission invited representatives of the Arab League to take part in international observation of the elections and visit polling stations and public observation centres as part of the monitoring process.
In turn, Zaki noted that the signing of the agreement was a friendly gesture and a great contribution to the development of relations between Arab countries and Russia. ‘The main purpose is to create fair conditions for citizens of our countries and their free expression of their will’, the Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League stressed.
The Central Election Commission said that within the framework of the cooperation, the parties intended to ‘study the activities of national electoral bodies to ensure the electoral rights of citizens, improve the professional training of election administrators, study the use of information technologies in the electoral field and develop the electoral culture of participants in the electoral process’.
Elections to the State Duma of the eighth convocation are scheduled for 19 September 2021. They will be held over three days – on 17, 18 and 19 September. Simultaneously with the elections to the lower chamber, direct elections to the heads of nine subjects of the Russian Federation (in three other regions the top administrators will be elected by deputies of the legislative assemblies) and 39 regional parliaments are to be held on the same day.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS