MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. The Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) considers the US presidential election as a purely media project, in which citizens' electoral rights are completely unprotected, Igor Borisov, a member of the commission, told reporters.
"Working in the Russian Central Election Commission and exchanging information [with colleagues] in terms of the development of electoral systems [of other countries], we come to the idea that the American [presidential] election is a purely media project in terms of those procedures aimed at protecting electoral rights," Borisov said, noting that citizens' electoral rights are not fully protected in the United States, which is about to hold the US presidential election on November 5.
According to Borisov, he had an opportunity to verify it himself when he was an expert in 2012. In his words, manipulation, deception, non-admission of observers, bribery, and administrative pressure were recorded at those elections. "We [in the Russian Central Election Commission] conclude that if one looks for examples of the fulfillment of political electoral rights, they could hardly find there any <…>. That is their business, and we are ready to explain, show them, interact with them, but now we are also forbidden to come there [in the United States] as observers and experts. While having a closed [electoral] system, they at the same time praise it as the best. But unfortunately, it’s still nothing more than talks, in practice we do not see anything they talk about. And we are focused on the requests of our Russian voters, who ask to organize elections in such a way that they are open, accessible, transparent, held in full compliance with the current legislation, which is what we strive for," he concluded.