MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. About 38 million people could vote remotely in the Russian presidential election scheduled for March 2024, Russian Central Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said.
"By the time of the presidential election about 38 million people will potentially be able to vote [remotely]. This is more than a third of all our potential voters," she said.
Pamfilova said the government will not expand the list of regions where Russians will be able to vote remotely.
"This is a final decision: No more than 29 regions. It wasn’t our goal to rush the adoption of remote electronic voting. It is an additional type of voting, which is meant to develop over time, but we aim to use it with a lot of thought, care and caution," she said. "The time of the presidential election is not the time for experiments."
The election commission chief also commented on the preparations for the election in the country’s new regions.
"We have done everything possible with respect to training because the adaptation and the transition to Russian law was hard," Pamfilova said. "It was about outfitting the polling stations, the formal establishment of these polling stations. We did a lot to make sure they had all they need. Of course, there are some nuances, given that it’s an area where military operations are taking place."
The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, has set the election for March 17, 2024. The Russian Central Election Commission announced that the voting will last three days: March 15, 16 and 17, making it the first presidential election in Russia that will last three days. The number of potential candidates to run in the election has exceeded 30 people.