Vyacheslav Volodin: Election observation by CSTO PA monitoring groups is an important tool for protecting electoral sovereignty

“The work of the CSTO PA monitoring groups on election observation is becoming extremely demanded: it is an important tool for protecting the countries’ sovereignty and electoral rights,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in his address to the joint Council meeting and the 15th plenary session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

The CSTO PA Chairman recalled that in 2022 members of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly “observed referenda in Belarus and Kazakhstan, presidential and parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan and in Serbia.”

Vyacheslav Volodin stressed that the electoral systems of the CSTO Member States is more advanced “than those used in countries that constantly stress that they bring democracy to us and set out its standards.”

“We don’t have postal voting that 70 per cent of the citizens use to express their will, we don’t have norms allowing for 45 days of early voting and a lot of other things. If this were happening in our countries, it is clear that it would not be acceptable, and people have told us exactly that,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, stressing the need to protect electoral systems.

“We need to do everything to ensure that we are not imposing standards that infringe on the interests of citizens, and this is what we see as our task when we discuss issues related to strengthening electoral processes in the Organization and harmonizing them," said Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

As you may recall, at its plenary session held in the Hall of Columns in the House of Unions, on December 5 the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly adopted Recommendations on Improving Legislation to Ensure Protection of Electoral Processes and Sovereignty in the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States.