Address of the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation V.E. Churov

Dear users of the Internet! I welcome you on the official website of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.

In 2012-2013, the Russian electoral system has faced important changes related to the improvement of electoral legislation, the strengthening of the personnel component of the election commissions, optimization of the organizational infrastructure of the electoral process. Such changes are targeted at both the preparation and conduct of a single voting day on September, 8 of the current year and subsequent elections, including federal election campaigns in 2016 and 2018.

The most important were the changes made in 2012 to the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum ", as well as their implementation. In particular, one single voting day in the Russian Federation (the second Sunday of September) was set, establishment of single (and multi) mandatory electoral constituencies for a term of 10 years and setting of polling stations, referendum stations for a period of 5 years, the formation of precinct election commissions for a period of 5 years, as well as the reserve of election commissions members were provided.

The practical implementation of these innovations required serious efforts of the entire system of election commissions - the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the election commissions of 83 subjects of the Russian Federation and the 2744 territorial election commissions. This refers to the development and adoption of regulations, guidelines, workshops and meetings, the development of software products to integrate and organize information in the State Automated System, as well as training of election officials.

Information and statistics concerning the formation of precinct election commissions in 83 subjects of the Russian Federation can be found on the website of the CEC of Russia in the section "Formation of precinct election commissions and the provision of precinct commissions’ members." Here are a few figures about this multi-faceted and, in fact, unprecedented for electoral system process, which was completed in a limited period of time.

Considering the rise of political parties and their clear desire to take part in the Russian electoral process, we are interested in specific figures. So, on the basis of 1.4 million proposals more than 92 thousand polling stations were established and members of a similar number of precinct election commissions were defined. Political parties invited 727,000 candidates to the precinct election commissions, representing more than half of the total number of proposals received. Including the political parties represented in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ("UNITED RUSSIA",  “Communist party of the Russian Federation”, “Liberal Democratic Party”, “FAIR RUSSIA”) that proposed about 40 per cent of the total number of proposals received, and non-parliamentary parties - more than 11 percent.

According to the law the proposals, except the political parties,  came also from the groups of voters (39% of the total number of nominations), public organizations (6%), and other municipal institutions (3.5%).

The result was the appointment of 830,000 members of precinct election commissions with the right to have casting vote. The facts characterizing the activity of political parties and the qualitative membership of a numerous election officials are positively evaluated. Thus, out of the 48 political parties which had sent their proposals, 46 got representation in the election commissions, and out of the number of nominated members of election commissions more than 77 percent have experience in the electoral system.

Activities on formation of election commissions were carried out publicly, the relevant information was available and promptly placed on the CEC website and websites of election commissions of subjects of the Russian Federation in the Internet.

In the first half of this year the Russian legislation on elections and the general principles of organization of state power of the subjects of the Russian Federation, was made other, no less important changes. It should first be noted that the provision of regional parliaments to choose the order of replacement of the head of the region - either through direct elections of the highest official of the Russian Federation (the head of the highest executive body of state authority of the Russian Federation) or through election by deputies of the legislative (representative) body of state power of the subject of the Russian Federation.

The decision on the election of the regional heads of the legislative (representative) body of state power by deputies was rendered in the Republic of Dagestan and the Republic of Ingushetia.

The Russian Federal legislation establishes additional requirements (prohibitions) to candidates for election positions associated with the use of foreign financial instruments.

You can learn about all  the innovations in the election legislation  in the section "Legislation on elections and Referenda." Here are as reference material available current versions of federal constitutional laws and federal laws, bills, Commentaries to the Laws and regulations and definitions of the courts of the Russian Federation concerning the elections.

The information on political parties is regarded to be useful. The number of political parties, as well as those that are eligible to participate in the elections, has grown substantially over the past two years, from seven political parties that participated in federal elections in 2011-2012, or 28 parties that had such a right at the moment of the publication of the decision to call the election on October 14, 2012, up to 53 parties (as of early June 2013), the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation had registered at that date 70 political parties.

Information on political parties is regularly updated based on the materials of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and is located in the section "Political Parties". There you can find the financial statements of political parties. The above mentioned section is interesting as by the uniqueness of available generalized information and the ability to hold a comparative analysis of the dynamics of participation of political parties in elections. Since the parliamentary elections in December 2007, the section locates the information-analytical bulletins "Regional elections and party dynamics", here you will find the formed with the participation of the CEC of Russia, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and the political parties, the first issue of the reference book "Political parties in the Russian Federation. 2013.”

An important electoral event of the year in the Russian Federation will be a single voting day on September 8. The preparation for this day was begun by electoral system early: it analyzed the results of previous elections and the ongoing election campaigns; identified problems and determined the direction of their solutions, developed regulations and guidelines on various aspects of the election process, with special attention paid to training of election officials, holding in Moscow, and at the stations, as well as coordinating with government agencies and local authorities in the preparation of the voting day. Information on meetings held in 2013 and previously with the organizers of elections and political parties, can be found in the relevant sections on our website.

On September 8, 2013 eight regions of the Russian Federation will hold election of senior officials of the Russian Federation (the heads of the highest executive bodies of state power of subjects of the Russian Federation) in the Khakass Republic, the Zabaykalsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai, Vladimir Region, Moscow Region and Magadan Region, Moscow, the Chukotka Autonomous District .

Elections of deputies of the legislative (representative) bodies of state power of subjects of the Russian Federation in connection with the expiration of the term of office are scheduled in 16 regions: the republics of Bashkortostan Republic, Buryat Republic, Kalmyk Republic, Yakut (Sakha) Republic, Khakass Republic, Chechen Republic, Zabaykalsky Krai, Arkhangelsk, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Rostov, Smolensk, Ulyanovsk and Yaroslavl regions.

Election of members of representative bodies of local self-government of administrative centers (capitals) of the subjects of the Russian Federation will be held in 12 regions of the Russian Federation (in the cities of Abakan, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Novgorod, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kyzyl, Maikop, Ryazan, Tyumen, Yakutsk).

The elections of heads of municipalities of administrative centers (capitals) in the 8th subjects of the Russian Federation are scheduled in the cities of Abakan, Novgorod, Vladivostok, Vologda, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk and Khabarovsk.

For the convenience of users who are interested in regional elections on the website of CEC of Russia there is a special section "The elections in the Russian Federation, September 8, 2013", which contains the most complete information about the preparations for the elections, and after the completion of the voting will be information about the outcome. You can also use the repository of information about federal and regional elections. And, of course, you will be able to look into the section "Information about the elections and referenda" in which data of GAS "Vybory” is placed on all passing election campaigns.

Information about the elections held abroad, the opinion of the representatives of the CEC of Russia about their organization is located in the section "International cooperation of CEC of Russia." International cooperation is important in our activities; one of its forms is the participation of representatives of the CEC of Russia in the international observation missions for the elections in foreign countries. During the first six months of 2013 the representatives of the CEC of Russia took part in the international observation of the elections in Armenia, Venezuela, Mongolia, and the Philippines. It is interesting the  cooperation of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation with colleagues from abroad, including joint conferences, workshops, exchange of experiences.

So, in Moscow in this year there was a meeting with the delegation of the Central Election Commission on Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic ( in April), the working conference of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation and the State Election Commission of the Republic of Poland, devoted to the electoral legislation of the two states (in May). This mutual conference with the commissioners of the State Election Commission of the Republic of Poland is the second meeting. The first one was held in September, 2012,  in Warsaw. We sincerely welcome the organization of such events, and are ready for professional dialogue with our colleagues from other countries.

The sections "News of the CEC of Russia", "News from the regions" and "Hot Topics", provide information about current events held both in Moscow and in the regions of the Russian Federation, including the participation of the election commissions, political parties, expert and scientific community, authorities; announcements about various activities of the CEC of Russia and with the participation of the CEC of Russia, conducted press conferences, briefings, workshops and visits to the regions of the CEC of Russia.

In autumn 2013 we’ll celebrate the 20-th anniversary of the  Russian electoral system. We consider it as the  opportunity to outline the activities and determine future plans. You can find out about all our events and their participants visiting the website of the CEC of Russia  and of the election commissions of subjects of the Russian Federation.

Dear users! Today the website of the CEC Russia has no analogue in terms of the collected information about  elections and Referenda in the Russian Federation. It will be pleased to us if  this information is useful for,  especially on the eve and following the results of the election campaigns.

            Welcome!

Vladimir  CHUROV