SIMFEROPOL, March 16, 14:22 /ITAR-TASS/. More than one third of Crimean residents entitled to vote have voted at 10am local time (at noon Moscow time) in the Crimean city of Bakhchisaray, news agency CrimeaInform reported on Sunday.

“The turnout is already around 30 percent. This figure takes into account people who were additionally put on the lists of voters. The referendum is expected to have hundred percent turnout. Crimean Tatars are coming with whole families from different residential districts and are participating in the voting,” press secretary of the Bakhchisaray city council Yulia Bekirova stated.

An unprecedented high turnout is reported throughout Crimea. According to observers, people are even lining up at some polling stations, but election committees are doing their best so that all people will be able to vote calmly.

“People have been coming massively to polling stations from early morning, this situation has not been observed since Soviet times,” chairman of the committee for referendum in Crimea’s Supreme Council Mikhail Malyshev said.