MOSCOW, March 19./TASS/. The majority (72%) of surveyed Russians trust the results of the presidential election, the nation’s leading polling agency wrote on its website.
"By the time the poll was conducted, the majority of Russians had already familiarized themselves with the voting results (85%)," VTsIOM said. As many as "72% trust the election results, with more than half of them having no doubt about them (54%). Thirteen percent of our fellow citizens do not trust the results of the presidential election, and another 14% are unaware of how many percent the candidates gained," the Russian Public Opinion Research Center said.
In addition, compared to surveys from previous elections, this year a record number of Russians (65%) believe that the results are reliable and consistent with the will of the voters (2004 - 53%, 2008 - 53%, 2012 - 44% and 2018 - 60%). At the same time, 18% of those polled believe that "there may have been some fraud on the 'ground,’ but it did not affect the voting results in the country as a whole." (minus 10 p.p. to 2018). About one in ten (12%) thinks that the election results are not trustworthy.
According to the survey, the outcome of the election is seen mostly positively among Russians, evoking hope (42% of those who know the outcome of the voting), joy (34%), enthusiasm (21%), and satisfaction (2%). One in five respondents (20%) admitted to feeling indifferent to the election, 7% reported being disappointed with the results, while 6% reported feeling annoyed and skeptical.
The Russia-wide VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted on March 18. The poll surveyed 1,600 Russians over the age of 18. The margin of error at a 95% probability rate does not exceed 2.5%.
Voting in the Russian presidential election took place over three days on March 15-17. The e-voting system was available in about one-third of Russian regions. With 100% of ballots counted, Russian incumbent President Vladimir Putin garnered 87.28% of the vote, according to data from the Russian Election Commission. The turnout of 77.44% was the highest ever in Russia’s modern history. Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) nominee Nikolay Kharitonov came in second with 4.31% of the vote, followed by New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov (3.85%). Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee Leonid Slutsky was last with 3.2% of the vote.