Russian Central Election Committee Divided Israel into Sectors

About 100 thousand of Russian citizens living in Israel will be able to take part in the elections for the state legislature – Duma on December 7.

The Head of the Consular Department of the Russian Embassy in Israel Aleksei Shtrykin informed Russian information agency RIA Novosti about providing the facilities for Russian citizens to vote.

They are designated in the first place for the people living in Israel on the regular basis, including those having double citizenship and being on long term business trips, Shtrykin said. The people coming to Israel on business or as tourists for short period of time will be authorized to come to the election polls in case if they received coupons for striking off the register before arrival in Israel.

Israel is divided into 11 electoral districts on the base of three Russian electoral regions. The election polls are opened in the biggest cities of the country to provide the opportunity to vote for Russian citizens living in different parts of Israel. This scheme was used during last Duma elections and gave good results.

The employees of the Russian Embassy in Tel-Aviv and Consulate in Haifa will register voters, provide them with bulletins and count the votes on December 7 since 8 am. According to the law, there will be intermediate counting of votes at 10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm of local time. After the polls will be closed at 8 pm, the final voting results will be reported to the Central Election Committee in Moscow.

During the voting in Israel the common for Russia procedure of observing the voting process will be practiced, Shtrykin said. He added that some Russian political parties and organization used their legal right and affiliated observers to the polls. The observers are Russian citizens living in Israel.

Shtrykin said the previous elections for the Duma revealed low percentage of the voters’ participation. The Consular Department Head stressed that since that time much work on informing the electorate was conducted.  The Embassy Employees gave many interviews to the local Russian-language press and radio stations, explaining how important every vote is for the future of Russia.
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Shtrykin said the Embassy provided a special phone line for Russian citizens’ inquiries  on the election procedure, election polls location and  other issue dealing with the elections. Every day the phone operator answers 40-50 phone calls.

The conversations with the visitors of the Russian Embassy in Israel and its Consular Department, the Consul’s receiving people on his trips around Israel showed the growing interest of the Russian citizens residing in Israel to participationin the political life of Russia, Shtrykin said.

Russian information agency RIA Novosti