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Acting head of Russia’s northwest Komi Republic keeps strong lead in election

SYKTYVKAR, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Vyacheslav Gaizer, the acting head of Russia’s northwestern Republic of Komi, maintains a strong lead in Sunday’s election for the post of the republic’s head having garnered 78.97% of the votes in his favor after all of the voting ballots were processed, the local election commission reported on Monday.

Gaizer, a member of the United Russia ruling political party, is followed by two rival candidates, who secured 6.85% of the votes each and they are Andrei Andreyev from the Russian Communist Party and Mikhail Braginfrom the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).

The top five of the candidates for the post of the republic’s head is rounded up by Ilya Velichko from A Just Russia political party with 3% of the votes and Yevgeny Vologin from the Right Cause party with 2.45% of the votes.

Elections of various levels were held on Sunday in all Russian regions, except the republic of Ingushetia. Elections were held in two new Russian regions - Crimea and the city of Sevastopol - too.

In all, the country saw about 5,800 election campaigns and local referendums. About 75 million eligible voters have been registered across the country. Thirty Russian regions elected their heads and governors, 14 regions elected legislative assemblies, three administrative centers of Russian regions elected their mayors.

The voter turnout was in general low, but is some regions it exceeded 50%. According to the Central Election Commission, this high turnout was reported from the gubernatorial elections in the Orel, Samara and Tyumen regions, and in elections of heads of the republics of Komi and Kalmykia.

High turnout was registered at elections to legislative assemblies in the republic of Tyva - 67%, in the republic of Tatarstan - 69%, in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria - 67%, and the republic of Karachai-Circassia - 66%.

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Russia's domestic policy

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