Falsifications at the election to the State Duma
deputies in December 2011 produced a new phenomenon
in Russia – a whole army of civilian
observers, the number of which sharply increased by
the time of the Presidential elections held in March
2012. People voluntary and for free went to the
polling stations, driven by a single idea – to make
those elections fair. Today, when regional elections
are periodically held in Russia, the idea to monitor
the fairness of the procedure transformed into the
«Civilian» or «Electoral» tourism. Observers from big
cities, who got baptism by fire at the federal elections,
arrive to the region and ensure independent
monitoring of the election procedure’s observance.
At that, they show good management: call-centers
and headquarters are established, monitoring of online
transmissions from webcams set in the polling
stations is conducted in the internet. Data received
from observers is promptly processed. So the question
is whether or not this is necessary; how long will
this last, what will it change and what will it not
change? The film about the Mayor’s elections in
Omsk in summer 2012, when troops of observers
from Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk
landed in the city, seeks to answer these questions.