MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) — The coordination council of the All-Russian Popular Front discussed at its meeting how to equip the polling stations with web cameras. Vladimir Putin offered to discuss in the Internet the transparency of forthcoming presidential elections and stated that neither rigging nor allegations over the unlawfulness of the elections should occur.
Presidential candidate Vladimir Putin evidently does not want even a hint of dishonesty to overshadow his presidential campaign, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. “Certainly, the debates should take place in the Internet, to my mind, we should listen to people, listen to their constructive proposals, generalize the conclusions, if you find any real proposals seeking for a more transparent election process, you should certainly use them,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. The prime minister recalled that representatives of the State Duma opposition – “representatives of all political forces” – should “control the whole process.”
Some activists of the All-Russian Popular Front took these ideas sceptically. For instance, a film director Stanislav Govorukhin is convinced that the web cameras installed at the polling stations cannot settle the transparency problem at the elections. “What about the bribery, intimidation of voters or what is written in the Internet?” Govorukhin asked a rhetorical question.
Vladimir Putin stated that he is ready to meet with Chairman of the Central Elections Commission Vladimir Churov if necessary and to raise debates in the Internet, in order to learn what Internet voters can offer, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily writes. “We were also going to install the ballot boxes! Let’s allocate the funds for ballot boxes. Let’s the ballot boxes be transparent. Let’s all be transparent!” the prime minister told Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev with a smile.
Putin asked the All-Russian Popular Front and his election staff what else can be made along with the installation of the web cameras, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta writes. But at first Shchegolev dwelt on an unprecedented project in the world. Some 200,000 web cameras should be installed at the polling stations. Shchegolev added that the suppliers do not have such stocks of web cameras and 30,000 polling stations do not have the Internet connection at all. The local storage of video recordings should be provided, if the Internet connection is unstable, the record copies can be used. “We can guarantee the dedicated channel of broadcasting for the parties and public organizations. If 100 million people want to watch it at the same time, the Internet will just hang up,” the minister elaborated.