Vladimir Solodov, the governor of Russia’s Far-Eastern region of Kamchatka, became the first regional head to cast his ballot in the country’s presidential vote, which kicked off on Friday.
Head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova, for her part, said that almost 2.6 million Russians has taken part in early voting. Commenting on the course of the elections, she stressed that everything is going well despite attempts at provocation.
About 1.6 million voters from some 28 Russian regions have already used the E-voting remote electronic voting system to make their choice.
Likewise, the heads of many Russian regions, leaders of political parties, and senior officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and State Duma (Russia’s Lower House) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, have already voted.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov voted at one of the polling stations in the Southern Military District earlier on Friday..
In all, more than 94,000 polling stations will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time across Russia. With the exception of several locations abroad, the vote will be formally over at 9:00 p.m. on March 17, when polling stations in Russia’s westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad will close their doors.
Four politicians are vying for the top job, including incumbent President Vladimir Putin, who is running as an independent candidate; head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Leonid Slutsky; Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov; and New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov.