MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. More than 12,000 hopefuls have put themselves forward as self-nominated candidates for election to offices at various levels of government across Russia, out of a total of least 75,000 citizens filing candidacy papers, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said at a meeting of the commission.

"Today, the [candidate] registration stage has been completed across the country, with only four new regions being the exception, as their deadline for filing papers runs until August 17. At this moment, in the other regions at least 75,000 candidates have been nominated, of which more than 12,000 were self-nominated," Pamfilova elaborated.

In 2023, Russia’s Unified Election Day falls on September 10. Residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will be taking part in the nationwide voting for the first time. More than 4,000 election campaigns will be waged for offices in 85 regions of the Russian Federation, including direct elections of top officials in 21 regions, and elections of members of legislative bodies in 20 regions. Voters nationwide will choose candidates for more than 34,000 elected offices.