Translated material
Elections must be economical
In the midst of the crisis, Vladimir Churov optimizes the expenses of the Central Election Commission
The Central Election Commission will save public funds during the crisis. Speaking with reporters yesterday during a tea party on the occasion of the New Year according to the Julian calendar, the head of the department, Vladimir Churov, repeatedly emphasized that “not a single new direction begins without a feasibility study.”In particular, he noted that the CEC plans to reduce expenses on research and development (R&D), which cost about 800 thousand rubles. per year. In addition, the Central Election Commission plans to more actively develop the electronic voting model for polling stations located abroad, as well as in hard-to-reach and remote areas. According to Mr. Churov, this will provide “cost savings of up to 25%” as well as a higher level of safety. At this point, the head of the Central Election Commission reminded journalists about the tragedy with the Mi-8 helicopter that crashed on January 9 in Altai: “When holding elections on 10% of the territory of Russia, helicopters also have to be used, and even in even more extreme conditions.”
In addition to the Internetization of electoral processes, the CEC has long been planning to use amphibious vessels, ekranoplanes, and light hovercraft as a more economical and safe means of transport. On the eve of the regional elections on October 12, 2008, the general director of a design bureau was even specially invited to the commission meeting, who advertised his products to the heads of the Far Eastern election commissions. Vladimir Churov promised yesterday that he would continue to similarly introduce his local colleagues to the latest achievements of engineering.
Speaking about regional elections, the head of the Central Election Commission noted that it is necessary to carry out “more serious work with regional electoral legislation, which should be clear and consistent.” As an example of shortcomings on this front, Mr. Churov cited the Vladimir region, whose electoral laws he called “the most confusing in the Russian Federation.” This is what, in his opinion, led to the scandal with the refusal to certify the list of candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the Vladimir region. “By the start of the next election campaign, parties should not have any problems with the legislation,” summed up the head of the Central Election Commission. Speaking about improving legislation, he also did not ignore the ever-relevant topic of election campaigning and the so-called “information imbalances” in the electronic media. At the same time, the head of the Central Election Commission somewhat shocked journalists by admitting that he personally would prefer to act on the principle “everything is allowed, like in America,” prohibiting only extremist propaganda.
Let us note in parentheses that the Russian Center for Training in Electoral Technologies (RCET) under the Central Election Commission conducted monitoring of American media coverage of the US presidential elections in the fall. RTSOT experts came to the conclusion that American television was not completely objective and gave preference to Barack Obama, while domestic journalists covered the American elections unbiased. By the way, the results of similar monitoring of the coverage of the Russian presidential elections on state channels have been awaited from RTSOT for almost a year, but the date of publication of these data is constantly being pushed back into the uncertain future.
Finally, Vladimir Churov pleased the journalists with gifts - huge wall calendars for 2009. The calendar even has the name “Windows”: each page depicts windows with carved frames in old village houses. As Mr. Churov explained, these souvenirs were also created taking into account the task of saving money: “My photographs, the author’s, are provided for printing without a fee. Our good tradition of using improvised means will continue in the future.”