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Elections to Russian State Duma start in Australia

In total, six polling stations were set up in Australia, and today Russian citizens will vote in the largest city, Sydney, and the capital, Canberra

SYDNEY, September 18. /TASS/. Australia has become one of the first countries in the world to hold the elections to the Russian State Duma.

Russian citizens residing in the country will vote for one of the 14 parties, as well as for representatives of seven of them that put forward their candidacies in the Barnaul single-seat district No 36 in the Altai Krai where Australian polling stations are fixed. In total, six polling stations were set up in Australia, and today Russian citizens will vote in the largest city, Sydney, and the capital, Canberra. Elections in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth were held on September 11.

Chairman of the Canberra district election commission (DEC), head of the consular office at the Russian Embassy Eduard Shakirov told TASS that in order to vote in the elections, Russian citizens in Australia have only one condition to fulfill — they need to show a passport.

"Polling stations will work from 8am until 8pm local time (1am-1pm Moscow time)," Shakirov said. "After that, we will send the results of voting to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commission on Election. Canberra and Sydney DECs work independently from each other. That means that we will not coordinate results in whole Australia but instead hand them over to Moscow right away," he added.

Parliamentary elections in Russia

Elections to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, will be held on September 18 in a split system: 225 members of parliament will be elected by party tickets, while the other 225 are going to be elected in one-seat constituencies.

More than 111 million people are eligible to vote in the election and no minimal turnout is required.

Fourteen parties will be on the election ballot: the United Russia party, the Communist Party of Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, A Just Russia party, Russia’s Patriots, Civil Platform, the Green party, the Party of Growth, Parnas, Civil Power, Russia’s Communists, Yabloko, Rodina (Motherland) and the Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice. Parties have to pass the five-percent electoral threshold to receive any seats in the Duma.