Invitation to the Round Table “Russian Duma Election 2016: Insights for Action”

Hosted by MEP Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA) and MEP Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA)

R.S.V.P. by 5 April: amanda.lovkvist@silc.se

Ahead of Russian Duma Election 2016 the organisations Golos, IESC, EPDE and Silc are together launching a new initiative -presenting the results of their long-term election monitoring in Russia on the international level.

They aim at presenting as widely as possible the facts about the course of the Russian Duma election campaign: illegal campaigning, violations related to election campaign financing, new obstacles to the opposition candidate registration, restrictions of observers' and journalists' rights and other violations.

The first presentation on the long-term election monitoring results will be held on 7 April at 15.00 in the European Parliament.

Time: Thursday, 7 April at 15.00-18.00

Place: The European Parliament, ASP 1G

AGENDA

Welcome and opening

MEP Rebecca Harms (Co-president, GreensEFA) and MEP Heidi Hautala (Co-Chair of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, GreensEFA)

Opening remarks - Relations with Russia

MEP Knut Fleckenstein (Vice-president, S&D)

MEP Othmar Karas (Co-chair of the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, EPP)

Panel:

Analysis of financing of political parties and electoral campaign

Stanislav Andreichuk, Golos Movement

Media monitoring: methodology and results for February-March 2016

Viktor Vakhshtain, independent analyst

Barriers in the Russian electoral legislation

Arkadiy Liubarev, independent analyst

Legislative challenges for observation on E-day

Grigory Melkonyants, Golos Movement

Opportunities for distance observation

Lilia Shibanova, Golos Movement

Possibilities of electoral statistics based on official data

Roman Udot, Golos Movement

Comments

MEP Peter Eriksson (GreensEFA) (TBC)

Discussion

Closing remarks

MEP Heidi Hautala and MEP Rebecca Harms

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Golos is the most respected voters’ rights and election observation organization in Russia today. Established in year 2000 the organization now has citizen observers in nearly all regions in Russia, and has well-developed IT technologies for reporting in and communicating election fraud to the Russian public. www.golosinfo.org

European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) is a network organization assisting citizens’ election observation in the countries of the Eastern Partnership and in the Russian Federation, and aiming to contribute to democratic election processes throughout Europe. www.epde.org

International Elections Study Center (IESC) is a non-profit organisation aiming at promotion of the non-partisan evaluation of the electoral process, study and dissemination of the best practices in election administration, legislation and rules based on international standards. www.iesc.lt

Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC) is a liberal foundation that promotes the values of democracy and human rights. www.silc.se

Please find this invitation as PDF here.