MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has passed a ruling approving the results of a nationwide vote on amendments to the country’s Constitution.
According to the document, a total of 77.92% of voters supported the amendments and 21.27% voted "no." Overall voter turnout was 67.97%.
"Here is the CEC’s draft ruling on the results of the nationwide vote on constitutional amendments. According to the document, constitutional amendments, envisaged by Article 1 of the law on the amendment to the Russian Constitution and backed by more than half of Russian nationals in the nationwide vote, are considered to be approved," CEC Chairperson Ella Pamfilova announced.
The commission’s members voted unanimously to pass the ruling.
The CEC chairperson pointed out that a total of 109,190,337 Russians had registered to participate in the vote. "As many as 74,215,555 people - 67.97% - took part in the vote," she specified, adding that 57,747,288 voters had supported the amendments.
"Only two members of election commissions, who represent the Communist Party, refused to sign the final protocols in the Altai and Khanty-Mansiysk regions," Pamfilova noted. "The CEC received 15 special opinions from members of regional commissions, 11 of which were filed by the Communist Party. These don’t refer to actual irregularities and did not prevent the commissions’ members from voting to sign the protocols," the CEC chairperson said.
The Russian president's decree set July 1 as the official voting day, but Russians were provided with the opportunity to cast their ballots on June 25-30 in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. According to the law, the amendments will enter into force if over half of those taking part in the vote support them. There is no minimum voter turnout.