MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2020) Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Ella Pamfilova said on Wednesday that, according to the preliminary data, almost 65 percent of Russian citizens cast their ballots in the vote on constitutional amendments.
"According to our preliminary data, the turnout was 65 percent of the voting participants included in the list," Pamfilova said.
The CEC chairwoman noted that the extremely low number of violations were detected in the course of the vote.
"We have information about the separate counting of ballots in a number of cases where the voting results may be questioned due to possible violations. There are very few such cases, and we know only four so far," the CEC head stated.
She added that the online format of voting that was available in Moscow and the Nizhny Novogorod Region proved to be popular among their residents, and the CEC will work to extend such format to other regions.
"Citizens called, wrote, and applied to vote remotely where it was possible. In other words, this is a kind of a nationwide task for us, so that we can intensify this work and work in such a way that in the near future we can expand these opportunities, so that our citizens � not only in Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod Region � but also in other regions could vote online," Pamfilova said.
Pamfilova also said that Russia's CEC would take all necessary measures to crack down double voting attempts.
"I am convinced that none of the double voters will get pass. All of them will be identified, [cases will be] transferred to the appropriate services and votes will be counted as should be," Pamfilova concluded.
The nationwide vote on constitutional amendments was originally planned for April 22 but had to be postponed over the threat of COVID-19. It was later officially scheduled for July 1 with six additional voting days to avoid the spread of the disease.
