MINSK, February 26. /TASS/. A senior Russian lawmaker has praised Belarus’ parliamentary elections as free, democratic and legitimate.

"[The elections] were free, democratic, and fully legitimate," Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper house of parliament, and coordinator of the group of observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), told journalists.

According to Kosachev, unlike OSCE observers, monitors from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly do not assess a country in general or its political system while monitoring the elections.

During Belarus’ first-ever single voting day on February 25, the country’s residents elected 110 members of the House of Representatives (lower house of Belarus’ bicameral parliament, the National Assembly) and more than 12,500 members of local councils to five-year terms. As many as 263 candidates vied for the seats in the national legislature and seats in local legislatures were contested by 18,802 candidates. Voter turnout was 73.09%