Russian State Duma candidates form coalition for the abolition of electronic voting

Candidates to the State Duma from a variety of political forces announced the creation of a coalition seeking a ban on electronic voting in Russia.

The creation of the Coalition Committee “For the Abolition of DEG” (the Russian acronym for “remote electronic voting”) was announced on Facebook by human rights activist Marina Litvinovich, who ran for a State Duma seat in Moscow on the Yabloko party ticket. 

In the statement, the coalition said that from September 17–19, the voting period in the 2021 State Duma elections, “millions of citizens of our country were robbed of their votes.” As such, the candidates decided to create a coalition to lobby for the annulment of the online voting results in the elections in Moscow. The coalition will also seek a ban on the use of electronic voting systems in future Russian elections at all levels. As well, the coalition intends to “fight against other methods of falsifying elections.”

The committee also intends to hold a nationwide protest against the electoral results (the date of which has yet to be announced), draw up legal claims, and develop a bill on banning the use of electronic voting in Russian elections.

The coalition’s statement was signed by a number of well-known public figures, including, among others, human rights activist Marina Litvinovich; Moscow State University professor Mikhail Lobanov, who ran in the State Duma elections on the Communist Party ticket; the head of the KPRF’s Moscow branch Valery Rashkin; Yabloko’s Sergey Mitrokhin; and self-nominated candidate Roman Yuneman, who was disqualified from the elections.