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Elections to lower house of Belarusian parliament conclude — CEC chief

Chairman of the Central Election Commission Igor Karpenko earlier said that turnout stood at 72.98%

© Maria Drozhzhina/TASS

MINSK, February 26. /TASS/. Elections to the lower house of the Belarusian parliament have concluded, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Igor Karpenko said.

At a press conference, he named the winning candidates in all 110 districts. The official also said that, according to preliminary results, all 1,284 local councils had been formed.

Voter turnout at the parliamentary and local elections in Belarus has surpassed 73%, according to updated information, Karpenko also said.

"We have clarified preliminary data, turnout amounted to 73.09%," he added.

Earlier, Karpenko reported that turnout stood at 72.98%.

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 were seeking to enter the 110-seat House of Representatives (lower house of parliament), and 18,802 hopefuls were competing for 12,514 seats on local councils. There was no overseas voting.

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