Photo: Alexander Reka/TASS
MOSCOW, March 15 /TASS/. Voting in Russia's presidential election has begun in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) and Kherson region, with more than 1,200 polling stations opening in the three new regions, local election commissions told TASS news agency
"Our goal is to prevent the concentration of a large number of voters in a certain place at a certain time," said Vladimir Vysotsky, chairman of the DPR election commission.
On Friday and Saturday, voters in the DPR will be able to vote until 20:00 Moscow time (17:00 CET - TASS) and on Sunday, 626 polling stations will be open until 15:00 Moscow time (12:00 CET), the DPR election commission said.
There are 581 polling stations in the LPR and over 60 polling stations in the whole Kherson region. The turnout in early voting was 18.52 %, Yelena Kravchenko, chairwoman of the LPR election commission, told reporters.
Residents of the Zaporozhye region will go to the polls on 17 March, the local election commission said. Meanwhile, early voting began on Friday in Melitopol, Energodar, Berdyansk and other towns and district centres in the area.
The Federation Council, or upper house of the Russian parliament, has officially set the date of the presidential election for 17 March 2024. The Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) then announced that the vote will take place over three days on 15-17 March. There are four candidates vying for the top office, namely the candidate of the New People's Party (NPP), Vladislav Davankov, the self-nominated candidate and current President Vladimir Putin, the candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Leonid Slutsky, and the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), Nikolai Kharitonov.
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