You're reading: Official: Video surveillance unlikely to be organized for Crimea referendum

The official in charge of organizing the planned referendum in Crimea on March 16 said it was unlikely video surveillance would be organized for the plebiscite.

“We are discussing this, but we realize that we’ll hardly be able to organize it technically and materially. The lack of time and the resources of the Crimean budget will hardly make it possible,” Mykhailo Malyshev, chairman of the referendum organizing commission, told reporters.

He said the commission would try to register all observers who might come to the vote and expressed hope international observers would come too.

“We will try to register everyone who applies to us so that that they can see that the referendum is absolutely open. I hope that there will be international observers as well in order to make sure of [the referendum’s] legitimacy and transparency,” Malyshev said.

He said there would be about 1,200 polling stations throughout Crimea.

“There will be no violations on the part of the commission in organizing the referendum or carrying it through in spite of the very tight timeframe and in spite of the fact that there still is a whole string of organizational problems to be solved,” Malyshev said.

He denied allegations that about 700 ballots have been marked already.

“That is not true. It would have been impossible to make any markings because they haven’t been printed yet. According to the state registry office, there are 1,534,815 voters in Crimea. They are people with the right to vote, excluding Sevastopol,” he said.