Moscow Student Councils Plan to Pilot Blockchain E-Voting in June

Authorities of Moscow are planning to pilot blockchain-based electronic voting in university student council elections in late June 2019, establishing methods that the city’s mayoral election may be next to apply. The project is set to be tested with the support of the Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the Moscow City Election Commission (Mosgorizbirkom).

DIT deputy head Artem Kostyrko revealed that “We plan to do a test vote in the summer, at the end of June, until the list of participants is determined. While we had conversations with student associations, there are elections to the main councils that have been held on the blockchain for a long time. And we are planning to collect some feedback and see what changes will have to be made to the program“

He added that the Moscow election commission is also planning to test the program. The final technical task of the program will be transferred to the Moscow election committee on May 15–16. After the TOR has been approved, and the draft law on electronic voting has been adopted by the State Duma in the final reading, the DIT will publish in the public domain a program that anyone can test.

The city council of Moscow first submitted a bill to use blockchain in the e-voting system in February. In April, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a draft law on experimental electronic voting at the Moscow City Duma elections on September 8 of the current year. The draft law makes provision for conducting remote electronic voting as an experiment in elections of deputies of the Moscow City Council of the seventh convocation in one or several single-mandate electoral districts of the city, the list of which will be determined by the Moscow City Election Committee. The document says that the experiment will not replace the usual voting; this will be another form that Muscovites will be able to use.

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