CSTO parliamentarians focus on the protection of electoral processes and sovereignty

The fourteenth plenary session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly of November 29, 2021 passed a Resolution approving a proposal to develop a legal standard for the CSTO Member States to protect democratic elections, electoral processes and the sovereignty of the CSTO Member States from foreign interference, including taking into account the challenges of digitalization in the public and political sphere. An item to this effect was added to the 2021–2025 CSTO PA Action Plan on Approximation and Harmonization of National Legislation of the CSTO Member States.
Drafting of the Recommendations is currently underway, and in December 2021 Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, instructed to establish an inter-agency group on the drafting of the Recommendations under the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian State Duma to facilitate the swiftest implementation of the CSTO PA decision.
The group has specified the main parameters and the concept of the draft Recommendations and concluded that a draft Agreement on the Protection of Electoral Sovereignty of the Member States of the Collective Security Treaty Organization should become an integral part of the project.
At the suggestion of the working group, the Russian national public organization Russian Public Institute of Election Law was engaged by the State Duma to develop the draft as the lead executing agency.
At its meeting on January 31, 2022, the working group discussed the prepared draft Recommendations that have passed the interdepartmental approval procedure and proposed to submit the finalized draft Recommendations taking into consideration the comments and proposals to the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Political Affairs and International Cooperation.
As you may recall, on November 29, 2021 the fourteenth plenary session of the CSTO PA adopted a Regulation on the participation of the CSTO PA in international observation of elections and referenda in the Organization’s Member States.