MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Thirty ballot boxes were damaged by "brilliant green" dye during the Russian presidential election and 36 ballot papers were damaged, while the rest were restored, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said.

"Three dozen ballot boxes were sprayed with ‘brilliant green’ dye. <...> Most [ballot papers] were saved; they were accounted for. <...> In the end, only 36 ballot papers were affected," Pamfilova said at a CEC meeting, noting that no polling station had annulled the results.

The chief elections official also pointed out that, in addition, the CEC invalidated 709 ballot papers at 11 polling stations in eight regions for technical reasons.

"Somewhere the safe bag was not properly sealed. <...> We have maximally tightened the procedure for storing ballots where our voters have already voted," Pamfilova pointed out. "Overnight storage was, of course, under a video recorder. The level of protection was increased several times, the measures were very tightened, so that not a single mouse passed by without touching its tail. Then they were checked very strictly. Somewhere on the ballots the stamp of the district commission was missing," she said.

Russia held its first-ever three-day presidential election over the period March 15-17. According to the CEC, after 100% of vote tally reports by local election commissions had been processed, incumbent President Vladimir Putin held a resounding lead over his three rivals with 87.28% of the vote. The election saw a record turnout of 77.44%.