December 28, 2011 - 15:43 AMT
Russia to buy 60 thous. transparent ballot boxes for presidential election

About 60,000 fully transparent ballot boxes will be bought by the Russian electoral authorities for the presidential election on March 4, a top Russian election official said on Wednesday, Dec 28.

Last week, Russia's chief election official Vladimir Churov proposed making ballot boxes fully transparent to prevent ballot-stuffing. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a frontrunner in the 2012 elections, expressed his support for the move.

"About 60,000 transparent ballot boxes will be bought. The move will affect about 50 million voters," the Central Election Commission deputy chairman Stanislav Vavilov said.

The election official said transparent ballot boxes will be installed in voting booths in all major cities.

"Today we will send telegrams to all Russian regions with instructions of where and how they should be installed," he said, RIA Novosti reported.