Penza, 4 December 2011. PenzaNews. The director of research programs of Institute of democracy and cooperation John Laughland, present on elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the Penza region on December, 4th and doubted the expediency of presence of foreign observers at elections.

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In the interview to the news agency "PenzaNews" John Laughland said: “International observers see infringements on elections in this or that country very rarely. I have already taken part in 30 or 40 elections in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union countries as an international expert and I saw an infringement only once. It happened 8 years ago in Macedonia”.

The political scientist added that, international observers don’t know the full conception of an election campaign. They often don't speak Russian at all and leave the country even before the elections end and the beginning of counting of votes.

John Laughland said that thus it’s important to have local observers, the representatives of parties.

According to the international observer, he had time to visit four polling stations in Penza and also some stations in the regional centers.

John Laughland said: “The main difference of elections in Russia from the elections in England is the absence of the representatives of mass media and observers in the polling stations. So our polling stations are more silent than yours”.

Speaking about the technical equipment of the polling stations in Penza, the political scientist appreciated the complexes of processing of ballots, however he considers that the best system on elections is manual calculation of bulletins and votes.