MOSCOW (Shahid Ghumman): The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will open a Situation Centre for Public Monitoring of the State Duma elections in Moscow on September 17.
The centre will be inaugurated at 4:00 pm at the Civic Chamber building, located at 7 Miusskaya Square, and will remain operational throughout the voting period.
The centre’s work will begin with an opening press conference, during which members of the Civic Chamber, election observers, experts and representatives of regional public monitoring headquarters will discuss preparations for the start of voting.
The speakers will include Alexey Peskov, a member of the Civic Chamber, co-chairman of the Coordinating Council for Public Monitoring of Voting and executive director of the Independent Public Monitoring Association, also known as NOM.
Vladimir Shapovalov, a member of the Civic Chamber, associate professor at the Department of Comparative Political Science of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Russian Foreign Ministry and an expert with NOM, will also address the press conference.
Other election experts are expected to participate, with further details to be announced separately.
The Situation Centre will operate from September 17 to 21. Its programme will include events involving representatives of the Human Rights Council, political parties, civil society organisations, regional civic chambers, commissioners for human rights, children’s rights commissioners and international observers.
Press briefings will be held at the Civic Chamber on each voting day. Officials from the centre will provide verified information about the electoral process and respond to false reports and possible attempts to discredit the elections.
Alexey Peskov said the Situation Centre would traditionally serve as a meeting point for opinion leaders, experts and representatives of non-profit organisations involved in election monitoring.
Participants will monitor the voting process and present their assessments of the conduct of the elections.
According to Peskov, representatives of regional public election monitoring headquarters will also join the centre through online connections.
Regional headquarters are carrying out extensive work to analyse the electoral process and ensure round-the-clock public oversight.
International observers are also expected to visit the centre. They will be introduced to the infrastructure created for election monitoring across Russia, as well as relevant methodological materials and digital resources.
Peskov said the Situation Centre would provide an open and unique platform where a complete and objective picture of the elections would be formed on the basis of information collected by observers and assessments of possible non-standard situations.
A video surveillance centre will operate at the facility during the voting period. The centre will also monitor the remote electronic voting system.
The Civic Chamber is one of Russia’s principal institutions of public oversight and helps ensure that citizens’ interests are taken into account when government bodies make political decisions.
Monitoring the protection of voters’ rights is considered an important instrument of public oversight.
For this purpose, the Civic Chamber, together with regional chambers, trains, deploys and supports tens of thousands of public observers during elections at various levels.
The Civic Chamber’s call centre will maintain round-the-clock contact with observers stationed at polling centres across the country.
The “gold standard” developed by the Civic Chamber will serve as the main working tool for observers, enabling them to assess compliance with electoral rights at each polling station.
The Situation Centre will not be restricted to election observers. Any Russian citizen will be able to report a possible violation by contacting the Civic Chamber’s hotline.
The centre will be open to all interested visitors. Technical tours will be organised to familiarise guests with the work of its various departments.
Interactive training programmes conducted by election experts and practitioners will also give participants an opportunity to experience the role of an observer at a polling station.
The results of the Situation Centre’s work will be presented at a concluding press conference on September 21.
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