United Russia, the ruling political party has launched an e-voting system that is blockchain based for the upcoming party primaries to be held on 8 September. According to a report the party has updated its website with e-voting features which will allow Russian residents to vote through a public portal on the website through verification of their identities.
The blockchain e-voting to foster transparent elections
The head of IT projects, Vyacheslav Sateyev, indicated that the process of counting the votes should be done through blockchain technology. Sateyev indicated that candidate could upload their personal pages on the website including videos, news, distributing their pages as well as photos. The party is launching a compatible version for mobile devices, and the personal account has been integrated with social media platforms.
The e-voting system aims at improving election transparency by eliminating intermediaries in the electoral process. Voting is open to those who have completed the process of authorisation on the party’s web portal.
The United Russia party primaries are for the nominating of party candidates for the general election, but the decisions made during primaries are not binding. In the 2016 election, numerous United Russia candidates did not participate in party primaries, and they ran for the State Duma.
Blockchain technology growing in popularity in Russia
The ruling party is not the only section in Russia employing blockchain technology. The city of Moscow submitted a bill last month for the use of electronic voting. The local parliament of Moscow is planning to protect the electronic voting process and results in the forthcoming elections by using blockchain technology.
In December 2018, Saratov Oblast conducted a successful election using blockchain technology involving more than 40,000 participants. The voters used a blockchain based electronic voting system Polys to elect their local Youth parliament members. The system was developed in 2017 by Kaspersky Labs.
Cryptocurrency is picking up the pace in Russia, and Vladimir Putin recently asked legislators to prepare a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency by July. The state Duma Lower has indicated launch of oil-backed crypto.
