MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. The chief of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, has said she will be prepared to step down if she lets the September 18 elections end in failure.
"Don’t you know, I always keep my promises. I’ve tendered resignations more than once when I disagreed on fundamental issues. If I let these elections fail, I will resign," she said at a news briefing for foreign mass media, when asked if she might leave office in a certain situation.
At the same time she brushed off any suspicion of "defeatist sentiment."
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"I don’t feel like this at all, because I am certain that over the past five months of work to exhaustion we’ve accomplished as much as we never accomplished in years," she said.
Pamfilova said that for each passing day she had to pay with part of her health.
"Neither my daughter nor my dear ones - nobody will ever move either to the United States or Britain to live. They wish to live here, in Russia. This is my country and I want everything to be normal here," she said and then unexpectedly left the room after presenting apologies.
The State Duma elections are due on September. They will be held under a mixed pattern. Half of the legislators 225 will be elected on party tickets, and another 225 in single-member constituencies. On the same day voters will elect the members of legislative assemblies in 39 regions of the country. Seven territories will see direct elections of top executive officials. Also, another 5,000 municipal election campaigns are due. A total of 38,000 vacancies are to be filled. More than 103,000 candidates will participate.