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Polling stations closed, vote counting begins in Kemerovo mayoral polls

A total of 194 polling stations were open on the day of vote

KEMEROVO, January 27 (Itar-Tass) – The voting in early mayoral elections in Russia’s Siberian city of Kemerovo ended at 17:00 Moscow time on Sunday.

“Polling stations closed at 20:00 local time (17:00 Moscow time). The city election commission has started vote counting,” Vladimir Savelyev, a member of the Kemerovo election commission, told Itar-Tass. According to Savelyev, the turnout was 63 percent at 15:00 Moscow time. The final figure will be announced later. He also said the preliminary results will be made public in a couple of hours.

The early election was announced after Kemerovo’s former mayor, Vladimir Mikhailov, had resigned in the summer of 2012 after 16 years in office. Valery Yermakov, who used to be the vice-governor of the Kemerovo region in charge of the housing and utilities sector, was appointed Kemerovo’s acting mayor. Later on, the United Russia party nominated Yermakov as its candidate for the mayoral elections. The opposition Yabloko party nominated Artur Stash, while the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominated woman candidate Irina Orekhova. Tomofei Popov ran for the mayor as an independent candidate.

A total of 194 polling stations were open on the day of vote. Forty automatic vote processing systems were installed at the precincts. There are about 395,000 eligible voters in Kemerovo.

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