RIO DE JANEIRO, March 12. /TASS/. Early voting in the Russian presidential election was held in six cities of Brazil on March 10-11, Russian Ambassador to that country Sergey Akopov told TASS on Sunday.

According to the ambassador, the issue at hand the inhabited communities of Belo Horizonte (the Minas Gerais state), Vitoria (Espirito Santo), Sao Jose Dos Campos (Sao Paulo), Campinas (Sao Paulo), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) and Joinville (Santa Catarina State).

"Everyone who declared their desire to vote came almost everywhere, except for Belo Horizonte where 11 people were expected and four came. Four people voted in Campinas, while in Joinville [there were] even more [voters] than expected. In general, the turnout is pretty good," the diplomat noted.

According to Akopov, a total of 58 people voted in the Russian presidential election in Brazil over the weekend. "As you see, we fought for almost every vote. The consulates worked to identify and register our citizens who live there. We invited everyone to come to the polling stations, chose the places for voting and made the relevant announcements," he said.

According to the ambassador, the work was pretty difficult due to the fact that the Russian diaspora in the country is not very large. "Nevertheless, we tried to cover to the territory of Brazil as much as possible. We were able to send our representatives to the areas where people expressed the desire and willingness to vote," he pointed out.

"According to the information we have received, everything went off very calmly. As far as I know, there were no incidents," Akopov added.

Upcoming voting

On March 16, early voting will also be organized in the city of Salvador (Bahia state). On March 18, the election day, polling stations will open in Russia’s diplomatic missions in Brazil, namely, in the Embassy in Brasilia and the Consulates in Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Voting was also organized in the city of Goiania (Goias) located 200 km from the Brazilian capital.

Russia's Presidential elections will be held on March 18. Eight contenders are vying for the presidential office. They are incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will participate as an independent candidate, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, businessman Pavel Grudinin nominated by the CPRF, Yabloko party co-founder Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Party of Growth and business ombudsman Boris Titov, head of the Russian People’s Union party Sergey Baburin, TV host Ksenia Sobchak (nominated by Civil Initiative) and leader of the Communists of Russia Maxim Suraikin.