MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Preliminary results of the nationwide voting on the amendments to the Russian constitution have demonstrated consolidation of the pro-presidential majority in Russian society and the failure of the non-parliamentary opposition, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Thursday.
"I think we can congratulate ourselves because the figures we see are the real pro-Putin majority which has consolidated in this situation," Andrei Klishas, chairman of the constitutional legislation committee of Russia’s Federal Council upper parliament house and co-chairman of the working group on elaborating amendments to the constitution, said in an interview with the Veched (Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
The senator pointed to the moral aspect of this consolidation. "The situation is really very difficult. Look what is going on, what this pandemic has led to, what processes it has provoked in many countries, which call themselves ‘old democracies’ with stable democratic traditions," he noted.
According to Klishas, the voting on the constitutional amendments has again exposed "the failure of the so-called off-parliament opposition." "They called on people to remain home and hence we have more "for" votes. Because those who might have voted against - and these votes were important too - simply stayed home. So, dear opponents, you have had a chance to see again that you are being manipulated, flagrantly and dishonestly," he said.
About 78.05% of Russians have voted in support of constitutional amendments, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said after counting 96.04% of ballots.
According to the CEC, as many as 21.14% of votes were against. The voter turnout, according to the latest update, was 65%
The nationwide voting on constitutional amendments ended in Russia at 21:00 Moscow time. Voting started in Russia on June 25. The official voting day under the presidential decree was July 1 but due to the coronavirus situation the voting period was extended for a week, from June 25 through July 1. Vote counting began in regions after 20:00 local time on July 1, when polling stations closed. Along with the extended voting period (from June 25 to July 1), people could cast their votes outside polling stations at specially organized voting areas, including outdoors, or use contactless voting at home or the Mobile Voter application. Additionally, residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region could vote online.
The amendments will come into force if supported by more than a half of those taking part. There is no minimum voter turnout.