Electoral experts from Germany, France and Italy will travel to Russia to review its voting process during this week’s elections to the lower-house State Duma, Alexey Peskov, executive director of the Independent Public Monitoring Association and co-chair of the Russian Civic Chamber’s coordinating council for public oversight over voting, told Sputnik.
“Representatives from literally every continent are expected to attend the elections as experts or observers. Our list of those who have expressed interest includes experts from countries such as Germany, Hungary, France, and, for instance, Italy,” Peskov said.
He described the guests as seasoned electoral experts interested in Russian voting practices, who do not necessarily share the views held by political elites in their home countries.
“We welcome everyone. We will try to demonstrate how our public oversight institutions function and how the public oversight system is structured, a system which, incidentally, has no equivalent in the world,” Peskov added.
Elections for the ninth convocation of the State Duma will be held from September 18-20. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the upcoming elections a very important domestic political event.
