MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's October 11 regional elections are expected to require some 900 million rubles ($29 million) from the state budget, Russia's top election official told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
A total of 30 million voters are to cast their ballot during elections to local authorities in 76 Russian regions, including the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, which are due to hold their first municipal elections.
Among other regions going to the polls are Moscow, the Republic of Mari El in the Volga region and the central Tula Region. Mayors will be chosen in the Chechen capital, Grozny, Ingush capital, Magas, southern Russian city of Astrakhan and Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
"We did not calculate all the expenditures, but one voter costs about 30 rubles [about $1]. Thus, we have 30 million [voters], each costing 30 rubles to the state. The total sum stands at 900 million rubles. It is quite low, one of the lowest in Europe," Vladimir Churov said.
A total of 90,000 candidates have been registered to run in the election. Churov refused to give any forecasts on the turnout.
He added that the election campaign has been calm with almost no serious violations reported.
"The campaign has been running smoothly so far. There was only one instance [of serious violations] in the Moscow Region and one in the Astrakhan Region. Two cases have also been reported in the Leningrad Region [in northwestern Russia], but they were solved at the level of the regional election commission," he said.
The Russian Central Election Commission will report to President Dmitry Medvedev on the investigation of complaints it received during the election campaign.
