Additional polling stations for the runoff presidential elections cannot be opened either in the Russian Federation or elsewhere. Under the electoral legislation, the runoff is organized and held in the same conditions as the first round of voting – with the same electoral councils and precinct electoral bureaus and the same registers of voters. This is how the communicator of the Central Election Commission Rodica Sarbu commented for IPN on the Socialists’ requests to establish 159 polling places in Russia.
In this connection, Rodica Sarbu said there were enough ballots at the polling places abroad during the first round of voting. A more difficult situation was witnessed in London, where two polling stations were set up. More voters came to one of these stations and the electoral bureau members directed a part of the voters to the other station. A number of 2,998 persons voted at the first station and 1,010 at the second.
As regards the PAS leader Maia Sandu’s request to allow the students to vote where they study by signing an own responsibility statement against multiple voting, Rodica Sarbu said the general rule is applied in the case of presidential elections – the person votes at the place of domicile or residence or the new place of stay is declared 30 days before Election Day, or the person votes with the right to vote certificate issued on Election Day by the electoral bureau of the polling station located near the domicile. The legislation is amended by Parliament and the CEC cannot do this instead of it.
