Russian opposition e-voting suspended over DDoS attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Electronic voting to the coordination council of Russia’s street opposition was temporarily suspended Saturday, Oct 20, over a hacker attack, the movement’s central election committee said via Twitter, according to RIA Novosti.

“It is possible that the online voting has been affected by DDoS attacks,” the committee said, referring to a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack, a common form of hacking that denies users access to targeted websites.

More than 165,000 people have registered to vote electronically for official leaders to the coordinating committee, which claims it is following up on the 10-month-old protest movement’s demand for free elections and fair representation.

The committee will be comprised of civic activists, liberals, leftists and nationalists. The 45-seat council, in which 30 seats will go to civic activists while five will go to each of the political forces, is also aimed at representing the movement in the case of a potential dialogue with the authorities.

The all-electronic voting is being held Saturday and Sunday, both online and at polling stations across a handful of Russian regions.

The central election committee announced it will provide further details on its Twitter feed.