PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, March 6. /TASS/. Lighthouse keepers and the staff of a weather station at Lopatka Cape, the southernmost point of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, have cast early ballots in the Russian presidential election, a Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) official told TASS.
"Our election commission members had to fly 300 kilometers on a helicopter so that three people could cast their ballots, as the vote of each and every one counts. Lighthouse keepers and the staff of a weather station voted. As the employees said themselves: they are very happy that despite their [extremely remote] location, they too can vote in the election," Igor Shamrayev, deputy head of the regional election commission, said.
He added that even in the most remote areas of the peninsula, the secrecy of each vote will be observed. Local election commission officials take portable voting urns, a mobile screen and a small table with them wherever they go to make the voting process as convenient as possible for voters, wherever they happen to be located.
The Federation Council, or upper house of Russia’s parliament, designated March 17, 2024 as the date of the presidential election. The CEC then announced that voting will take place over three days, from March 15 through 17, making it Russia’s first three-day presidential election.
Lopatka Cape is home to a border post and a weather station. All villages that were once in the area are now abandoned.