As Russia heads for a day of pre-election silence, officials are preparing to fight vote fraud with tech-savvy novelties.
A Twitter account and a hotline have been set up, encouraging people to report any discrepancies. The authorities hope this will help beat voter apathy and indifference.
“Our goal is to draw as much public attention to our work as possible and raise citizens’ trust in it this way,” said Yaroslav Ternovsky, a member of the Civic Chamber of Russian Federation, told RT. “Twenty years of free elections is a lot on one hand, but very little on the other. Many don’t entirely trust it and we cannot quickly get rid of the Soviet legacy.”
Local officials, meanwhile, are preparing the technical part of the elections. Observers say that apart from voting apathy, one of Russia’sbiggest problems is the country’s vast territory which makes it hard to control every voting sector.
“Russia is a very big country, and it takes a lot of effort to make sure that everything is organized well,” John Naimi Amidal, from the Virginia Human Rights Council, told RT. “Being a new democracy adds to it as well.”