MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has decided that the country’s presidential vote will also be held in its four new regions.

The decision was made at a commission meeting following consultations with the Defense Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the regional heads. All participants came to the conclusion that it was possible to hold the presidential vote in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

"The decision is unanimous," CEC Deputy Chairman Nikolay Bulayev said. According to him, election commission members in the new regions are ready to hold the vote. "It’s not easy to work in election commissions in the new regions, and it’s dangerous because of the risk to life and limb," he noted. According to the CEC deputy chairman, the commission’s decision to hold the election in the new regions "will provide the residents of these regions with an opportunity to vote for their president."

CEC member Nikolay Levichev, in turn, added that if the situation in any of the regions got worse, the current legislation allowed the commission to postpone the vote in certain areas to a later date.

By law, the CEC is obliged to make a decision on holding a vote in the areas where martial law is in effect after holding consultations with the Defense Ministry, the FSB and the region’s highest official no later than five days following the Federation Council’s (the upper house of parliament) announcement on the date of the election. Later, the CEC is supposed to make a decision on how the vote will be held in these regions.

Russia’s presidential election will take place over three days, from March 15-17, 2024.