Vladimir Bespaly: Secrecy of the Ballot Strictly Observed in State Duma Elections

CSTO PA international group of observers have confirmed that the electoral process is well-organized and the voter rights are reliably protected in the State Duma elections.

According to Vladimir Bespaly, Senior Advisor at the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in the Russian Federation and Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the CSTO, parliamentarians paid special attention to ensuring the secrecy of the ballot. This fundamental democratic principle is being strictly observed at the polling stations.

“Monitoring the work at the stations, we looked in detail at how the process is organized locally and confirmed strict adherence to the secrecy of the ballot," Bespaly said.

According to the advisor, independent oversight is carried out at every stage of the electoral process. Strict confidentiality standards also apply to the remote electronic voting (REV) system: ballot secrecy is ensured through encryption algorithms.

As you may recall, the secrecy of the ballot in the State Duma elections is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as by the federal laws "On Basic Electoral Rights..." and "On the Election of Deputies to the State Duma."