Immortal as a beaten

The life of members of commissions working on the "reversing of the Constitution" was offered to insure

At the end of the month in Russia, a vote on amendments to the Constitution starts, it will last a week, from June 25 to July 1. At this time, thousands of members of the election commissions will be involved in the organization of plebiscite, due to the pandemic, they will all be at risk. The New Gazeta found out what consequences the summer vote can be and how to protect the members of the election commissions.

Official voting numbers allow us to be carried out - in most regions there is a plateau, says the molecular biologist Irina Yakutenko. However, according to the expert, there are questions to these figures, and we may not know the real situation.

- After removing restrictions, people will begin to visit public places, including premises. This can lead to several cases of superdrew (the situation where one person infects many people at once), which will lead to an increase in incidence.

There may be such a supercreting voting.

In the case of its risk, of course, members of the precinct election commissions (WIKs) are found, ”says Yakutenko.

Elena Pendarova, a lawyer and a member of the election commission of the Pskov region from Yabloko, decided to protect members of the election commission at all levels (at the time of writing the material in the region, 1535 cases of infection were registered). On Thursday, the woman sent a draft resolution to the election commission of the Pskov region, which will be able to ensure the insurance of members of the election commission of the region during the vote on amendments to the Constitution.

The document prepared by Pendaroka considers several insurance cases: the death of a member of the commission, hospitalization for more than three weeks, hospitalization for a period of three weeks or less, as well as confirmation of the disease of a member of the commission with a new coronaviral infection. Depending on the severity of the consequences, insurance payments should be from 300 thousand rubles. up to 2 million rubles. The lawyer justifies the need to introduce payments by the insecurity of members of the election commission: most of them do not work under an employment contract, but for remuneration ( compensation and additional wages. - Ed. ). Without the proposed insurance procedure, it is impossible to guarantee compliance with their rights.

- I consider it important to provide state guarantees for the time of voting. I can only give a comparison:

Country servants are subject to compulsory state insurance, security officials are insured. For members of commissions, which will, in fact, provide state functions, also need protection, -

approves Pendarokova.

Initially, the lawyer hoped that her proposal could be accepted on June 15, on the day of receipt of applications for voting outside the polling stations. In the Pskov region alone, despite the pandemic, at least 5,500 members of the election commissions will participate in the organization of the plebiscite. In addition, in the region, 477 members of election commissions with a decisive vote are at the age of 65. As the Poskovsky “Yabloko” press service explained, if you focus on the distribution statistics of coronavirus, according to which 3.6% of sick ages from 60 to 69 died, 17 people can die with one hundred percent incidence.

The issues of ensuring security during voting on amendments to the Constitution are engaged in the Central Election Commission in close contact with Rospotrebnadzor. To ensure the lack of accumulations of people, a week was allocated for voting, in addition, they expanded the homeless vote. In addition, as the chairman of the CEC Ella Pamfilova stated, before the start of the vote it is planned to conduct widespread testing of members of the election commissions on the Covid-19, and at the entrances to polling stations will measure the temperature. However, according to Irina Yakutenko, these measures may not be enough to protect the members of the PECs.

- For members of the election commissions, the risk remains high, both in the case of a subdominal vote, and in the case of voting in the plots. Moreover, the vote on amendments is stretched for seven days - this significantly increases the viral load for them, ”the molecular biologist explains.

The decision to insure their observers has already been made in motion in defense of the rights of voters “Voice”, says its co -chairman Grigory Melkonian. According to Melkonian,

This is necessary so that in case of infection they can count on receiving quality medical care.

- The conditions for such a vote contain serious risks of infection infection, since this is a large number of contacts between people. When attracting [to the procedure] of millions of people, there will always be one who will not observe all the recommendations, neglect disinfection or masks, ”Melkonian is sure.

According to political scientist Abbas Gallyamov, the initiative can be beneficial to the authorities: “It is important to demonstrate the care of people to the Kremlin, and in this case, no supernatural efforts are required and it is not necessary to sacrifice anything. This event will reduce the risks of the strike of the PEC members. ”

The project could really be distributed to all of Russia, but Melkonants, in turn, wonders who will allocate funds for insurance. In the project provided for the Pskov region, Pendarokova advises to resort to the help of commercial companies-now financial support in case of illness of coronavirus infection is offered by Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Ingosstrakh-Life, and other insurance from two to ten thousand rubles.

- We have 96 thousand sites, 900 thousand members of election commissions. With such a price range, you yourself can calculate the insurance budget. This amount should be provided in the voting budget. In addition, now many insurance programs are provided only for persons under 65 years of age, and the commissions are much older than this age, ”said Melkonian.

However, according to Irina Yakutenko, to ensure financial support to members of the election commissions would be a right decision, because the plebiscite puts them in a situation of increased risk for no special reason.

- If a state of emergency was announced, and the vote would be a super -working event, these people could not leave for work, as doctors who work with coronavirus patients cannot. But the members of the election commission are teachers, other state employees and enthusiasts-volunteers. Moreover, often the same teachers voluntarily-compliance are in the commissions and cannot refuse to participate so easily. These are mainly elderly women. The world will not collapse if for these amendments vote in autumn or spring, ”Yakutenko is sure.

Meanwhile, the possible growth of diseases that will follow the vote will certainly hit the ratings of the authorities, says Abbas Gallyamov.

“People are already sure that the authorities do not care about the needs and problems of the population, that in the name of achieving their goals, they are easily ready to sacrifice people, and then such a confirmation of this thesis will appear,” the expert summarizes.