MOSCOW – Russians are choosing their president for the next six-year term on Sunday in an election that state officials have described as the most open and transparent in modern Russia’s history.
Russians will have to pick one of the eight candidates on Sunday: Pavel Grudinin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Vladimir Putin (independent), Ksenia Sobchak (Civic Initiative), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), Sergey Baburin (All-People’s Union), Maxim Suraykin (Communists of Russia), Boris Titov (Party of Growth) and Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko).
Voting started in the easternmost parts of the country at 8am Kamchatka time on Sunday morning — 8pm GMT Saturday night — and the last polling stations will close 22 hours later at 8pm local time in Kaliningrad, the exclave bordering Poland and the Baltic, the Russia Today reported.
Putin’s aides are targeting a victory of at least 70 per cent of the vote with a turnout of more than 70 per cent – a better result than the four presidential elections held during the 18 years the country has been under his control.
Overall, 97,000 polling stations, 400 of them located abroad, are hosting the elections. Over 108 million citizens in Russia and nearly 2 million outside are eligible to take part in the vote.
Campaign posters with Putin’s picture next to a Russian flag carried the slogan: “Strong president, strong Russia”.
The law orders that the nation’s top state official – the president of the Russian Federation – must be elected by a universal, equal and direct vote and specifies that participation in voting is strictly voluntary and free.
The law also specifies that every Russian citizen who chooses to participate in the election must do so in person with a single exemption made for cosmonauts who are allowed to vote by proxy when in orbit.
A Russian cosmonaut at the International Space Station also participated in the polls. In a video call with the Central Election Commission, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said he “expressed his civil position” and cast his ballot despite being in orbit. More than 8,000 staff at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan voted as well.
According to law, to secure victory in the first round a candidate must receive the support of over 50 percent of citizens who took part in the elections. If no one succeeds in this, a runoff election will be announced between the two most popular candidates.
The ballot stations open at 8am and close at 8pm local time.
The elections, preliminary results of which will be announced on Monday, will determine who will serve as Russia’s president for the next six years.
