Penza, 6 March 2018. PenzaNews. The chief technology officer of the Penza branch of PJSC Rostelecom Roman Dudkin and the vice-chairman of the regional election commission Alexei Klimukhin demonstrated how a video surveillance system will be organized during the presidential elections on March 18.

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The presentation was held at the premises of the new building of lyceum No. 2 of Penza, where polling stations No. 141 and 142 will be located on the day of the elections.

Journalists had a chance to see the equipment installed in the building, in particular IP-cameras with a flash drive that record video and audio and at the same time broadcast information over a secure communication channel to data processing centres.

The set also includes a switch and an uninterruptible power supply system placed in special vandal-proof cabinets. A separate room was allocated for them on the third floor of the school.

"406 sets were installed in the territory of the Penza region. [...] Tests will start tomorrow. Then, we will provide video surveillance and transmission of information," the chief technology officer of the Penza branch of PJSC Rostelecom Roman Dudkin said.

He explained that the information will be stored in data processing centres during three months, after which it will be transferred to the Central Election Commission of Russia.

"Everyone can enter a public resource available on the Internet. It is called Нашвыбор2018.рф. Pre-registration is not required. The resource will start to operate in the near future," Roman Dudkin said.

In turn, the vice-chairman of the regional election commission Alexei Klimukhin noted that the video surveillance system covers 33 territorial election commissions and 373 polling stations of the region.

"Currently, all organizational issues are solved. We have yet to train members of the election commissions – at least two of each – to work with the CCTV system," he said.

Alexei Klimukhin also explained that the whole voting area – the place of issue of ballot papers and ballot boxes, that is everything except the polling booths where the voter makes their choice, is within eyeshot of two cameras at each station.

"The process of drawing up a protocol on voting results by members of a precinct election commission should also be within eyeshot of at least one of the cameras. When the protocol is signed, the chairperson of the election commission should announce all its clauses. This is broadcast by one of the cameras. This promotes openness and transparency of the process," the vice-chairman of the regional election commission added.

As it was reported before, Rostelecom was appointed the only provider of services related to the organization of video surveillance at the presidential elections on March 18, 2018, by the government of the Russian Federation.

The first such project was implemented during the presidential elections in 2012. At that time 3.5 million people followed the voting procedure on a special-purpose website watching 7.9 million broadcasts.