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Russia's single voting day coming to an end

With polls closing in eastern parts of country, no major violations reported so far

Photo ITAR-TASS/ Denis Vyshinsky

Photo ITAR-TASS/ Denis Vyshinsky

MOSCOW, September 8. (ITAR-TASS) - Kaliningrad will be the last Russian city to close polls; currently preliminary results are available in the Far East region.

First results

Ongoing vote count of the Vladivostok mayoral elections so far indicates the incumbent mayor, Igor Pushkarev, a United Russia candidate, is leading with 61,44%, followed by Viktor Cherepkov, a ‘Green Alliance – People’s Party’ candidate with 18,01%.

60% of the ballots cast in Magadan gubernatorial elections have been processed, with 85% of citizens voting for action governor Vladimir Pechenyy of United Russia.

With 25% of votes cast in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug gubernatorial elections processed, acting governor Roman Kopin of United Russia is leading with 81% of the vote.

Voter turnout

Turnout is noticeably smaller than in previous in parts of Russia, such as Rostov, Vladimir regions, and Yaroslavl. Chechnya and Kemerovo region turnout was reported as high (over 60%).

Moscow region

By 3pm Moscow time 18,56% of Muscovites cast their votes in the mayoral election; in 2003 almost one third of the population voted by this time.

Moscow region gubernatorial elections had a 21,86% turnout by 3pm.

Infractions

The number of complaints regarding campaigns recorded by the hotline of the Russian Foundation for Free Elections has declined by 2,5 times compared to 2012 elections, said Igor Bogdanov, the Foundation’s Executive Director.

While no major violations were recorded, the voting day was not completely infraction-free. A number of infractions were recorded in Moscow and Sverdlovsk region. One of Moscow mayoral candidates, Sergei Mitrokhin, declared that voters were being bribed – according to the candidate, social centers of the city were giving out rations to the disabled and labor veterans.

Sverdlovsk region police are looking into a mass text message campaign promoting one of the candidates. It was also recorded that some voters were bribed with vodka.

Interior Ministry representatives of the Yaroslavsk region registered 33 voting incidents, including possible voter bribery.

Police have registered no serious violations on the single voting day in Russia’s Siberia, the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

“Currently, the elections in regions of the Siberian Federal District have been over. Police ensured public order and security in full,” the source said.

The single voting day embraced 12 regions in the Siberian federal District with 437 election campaigns. Over 20,000 police and Interior Ministry servicemen, 870 officers of private security organizations, 745 Cossacks and 2,400 representatives of other law enforcement units ensured law and order at 7,613 polling stations.

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