The discussions of the People’s Assembly delegation participating in the process of observing the elections of deputies of the State Duma to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in Moscow and a number of Russian towns focused on strengthening the close parliamentary relations between Syria and Russia and the conduct of voting operations in the Russian elections.
The People’s Assembly delegation includes the head of the Syrian-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Committee Bassem Soudan, deputy head of the Syrian-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Committee Safwan Qurbi, in addition to the rapporteur of the People’s Assembly Services Committee Dr. Khalil Al-Khalil.
During the meeting of the People’s Assembly delegation with Sergei Muratov, head of the Russian-Syrian Parliamentary Friendship Committee in the Russian Federal Council, the Syrian and Russian sides stressed the deeply rooted parliamentary relations between the two countries and their importance in working hard for the interest of the two countries’ people.
The People’s Assembly delegation also met with Dmitry Sablin, head of the Russian-Syrian Parliamentary Friendship Committee in the Russian State Duma. They discussed the electoral mechanism.
The People’s Assembly delegation wished the electoral process success and a smooth and democratic process.
After meeting with the mayor of Sontsevo, Yevgeny Saruka, the People’s Assembly delegation toured some of the town’s vital facilities, including a model school, a medical center and a sports complex.
On the other hand, the delegation of the People’s Assembly attended a meeting called by Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Peter Tolstoy for the delegations participating in the monitoring process.
The delegation also visited the Social Center for Election Observation in the Odnetsovo municipality of Moscow countryside, during which they were briefed on the process of monitoring the electoral centers via video technology distributed in all the polling stations.
The delegation toured a number of direct polling stations, reviewed the electronic vote counting mechanism, and raised a number of questions to those in charge of electoral centers regarding the electronic voting mechanism.
The voting process for the elections for the eighth legislative round of the Russian State Duma started on Friday throughout the country and its diplomatic and consular representations in 144 countries in the world, and will continue until next Sunday evening.
On the other hand, the People’s Assembly participates in the work of the virtual intercountry meeting on giving priority to tobacco control, within the framework of the Thirteenth Global Program of Action, organized by the World Health Organization.
Dr. Khalil’s intervention confirmed that Syria did not back down from combating smoking.
Inas Abdulkareem