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Sixth Duma might begin work in outgoing year

December 21-23 and December 26-27 had been mentioned in the previous Duma as possible dates of the first plenary session of the newly elected Duma

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Vladimir Churov said in an interview with Itar-Tass on Monday that the State Duma of the sixth convocation might begin its work in the end of the outgoing year. Churov made it clear that the Central Election Commission would sum up the results of the election sooner than the deadline envisaged by the law.

Churov said that the Central Election Commission is simultaneously making preparations for the presidential election in Russia due on March 4, 2012. “Resolutions on the distribution of ballot papers and absentee ballots between the territories of the Russian Federation will be made at a CEC meeting on December 7-8,” he said.

The number of ballot papers found invalid in the December 4 parliamentary election was 0.5 percent up their number during the Duma campaign in 2007, Churov said. “There was no mass ruining of ballot papers,” Churov stressed. The number of ballot papers rejected made up 1.5 percent of the overall number of voters who came to polling stations, Churov explained.

The schedule of the Duma election campaign envisages that the Central Election Commission is to sum up the results of the vote by December 19, which is the deadline, and the results are to be officially published no later than December 24.

Under the Russian Constitution, a newly elected Duma is to meet in the first session no later than 30 days after being elected, but the president may convene a Duma session earlier than the scheduled date.

Earlier, December 21-23 and December 26- 27 had been mentioned in the previous Duma as possible dates of the first plenary session of the newly elected Duma.

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