MOSCOW, June 2 interest in the elections is growing every year, said Olga Kirillova, chairman of the Moscow City Electoral Committee, in an interview.
“Contrary to the stereotypical notions about the political apathy of Muscovites, interest in elections is growing every year. Moreover, Moscow in this sense is ahead of the world's largest megacities, where electoral activity has been falling over the past decades. In Moscow, on the contrary, there has been an increase in turnout,” — Kirillova said.
She added that, for example, in 2021, the turnout in the elections to the State Duma was 49.5%, which is 16.3% higher than in 2016, and an even greater increase was recorded last year — the turnout in municipal elections exceeded indicators of 2017 by 19.1%.
«We see the reasons for the increase in turnout both in the growth of the political self-consciousness of Muscovites, and in the constant improvement of the electoral system of the city. This was the case in 2019 with the introduction of DEG (remote electronic voting), which is now actively going to the regions, this was the case and with an electronic list of voters,» Kirillova said.
She added that, largely due to technological innovations, it was possible to attract those voters who had not previously voted at all, for example, due to employment, or because they did not want to go to the other end of the city to vote at the place of registration.
Single voting day in 2023 in Russia is scheduled for September 10. Moscow will elect a mayor. Since 2010, this post has been occupied by Sergei Sobyanin, he was twice re-elected to the post of mayor, running as an independent candidate. At the same time, the Moscow branch of United Russia had previously reported that Sergei Sobyanin would be nominated for the upcoming elections from the party.