MINSK, February 25. /TASS/. Voter turnout at the parliamentary and local elections in Belarus stood at 72.98%, chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Igor Karpenko said.

"Voted turnout was 72.98%," he said.

Nearly 5,500 polling stations were open in Belarus from 8:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. GMT) to 8:00 p.m. on the first unified election day in the country’s history. A total of 263 candidates are seeking to enter the 110-seat House of Representatives (lower house of parliament), and 18,802 hopefuls are competing for 12,514 seats on local councils. There was no overseas voting.

The unified election day took place under the country’s updated constitution passed in February 2022. Now, members of parliament and local councils will be elected simultaneously for five years.

More than 45,000 domestic observers were monitoring the vote, as well as almost 300 international ones, representing CIS nations (except for Moldova and Ukraine), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the election authorities of a number of countries, including Russia.