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Monitoring of Russian parliamentary polls to be impartial even without ODIHR — lawmaker

He also expressed certainty that there would be enough foreign monitors to oversee the polls

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. The absence of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) during the upcoming parliamentary elections in Russia will have no effect on objectiveness and impartiality of monitoring, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Saturday.

"I’m convinced that they [the elections] will be held in a proper way, and the monitoring will be conducted in a calm, objective and unbiased way even without ODIHR," the chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.

According to the lawmaker, ODIHR was irritated by Moscow’s decision not to grant access to an observer mission comprising 500 people.

He also expressed certainty that there would be enough foreign monitors to oversee the polls.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Wednesday said on its website that it would be unable to send monitors to the State Duma elections due to what it interpreted as restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities on monitoring the elections. ODIHR Director Matteo Mecacci said the ability to independently determine the number of observers necessary for us to observe effectively and credibly is essential to all international observation."

The elections of Russia's 8th State Duma are due on the voting day September 19, 2021. Actually, ballots can be cast during three days - September 17,18 and 19. Alongside the elections of lower house members there will be direct elections of the heads of nine Russian regions (in another three regions the top executive officials will be elected by members of local legislatures) and 39 regional parliaments.

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