Duma of the city of Tomsk

History

2025: Switch to manual voting because electronic has stopped working due to sanctions

Tomsk City Council completely abandoned the electronic voting system, returning to manual counting of votes. Speaker of the City Duma Sergei Sechenov in early March 2025 explained that the reason was the sanctions restrictions, due to which it is impossible to repair foreign-made equipment. The lack of necessary materials for the manufacture of boards and the impossibility of their firmware led to a complete failure of the system.

According to TASS, equipment for electronic voting was purchased and installed back in 2012. The process of evaluating the maintainability of this system has already been launched. If the equipment is recognized as not subject to restoration, the city council will be able, complying with the requirements of Federal Law No. 44, to purchase new Russian-made equipment.

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Фото: Telegram channel of the Duma of the city of Tomsk

The press service of the Tomsk Duma noted that for the legal purchase of new equipment, it is necessary to go through all the procedures prescribed by law. Until this process is completed, MPs will hold votes during sittings using cards.

Speaker of the City Duma Sergei Sechenov stressed that the problem arose due to the origin of the equipment: Our equipment is not from a friendly country.

In the context of the transition to manual voting, members of the counting commission manually calculate the results of each vote, which significantly increases the time required to make decisions at meetings of the city council.

The press service of the legislature also indicated that the use of voting cards is a standard, historically established procedure: This is nothing like that, it is a standard, even historical procedure.[1]

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