The Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) expects between 500 and 1,000 international observers from more than 100 countries to monitor Russia’s upcoming presidential election, CEC head Ella Pamfilova said on Wednesday.
“We predict there will be at least 500 of [observers]. Between 500 and 1,000 from more than 100 countries around the world,” Pamfilova said at a CEC meeting.
Representatives of ombudsman offices from at least 20 countries are expected come to the Russian presidential elections, she added.
“We guarantee the organization of the most benevolent, open process, favorable conditions for our colleagues from foreign countries to observe. They will be able to go to those regions that they view necessary to see how elections are held there,” Pamfilova said.
To date, 11 people have submitted their applications to run in the Russian presidential election, which will take place from March 15-17. Three of them have been already registered as they were nominated by parliamentary parties and thus are not required to collect signatures to get on the ballot.
Incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin is running as an independent candidate and had 315,000 signatures in support of his candidacy submitted to the CEC, above the 300,000-threshold set by the law, co-chair of Putin’s election campaign Maryana Lysenko said on Monday.
