Russia begins its historic presidential election 0
People go to the presidential election in the Russian Far East.
The 5 candidates on this year’s election list include Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist Party Chairman Gennady Zyuganov, Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Just Russia Party Chairman Sergei Mironov and a liberal candidate –
According to pre-election referendums, Mr. Putin, who served as president for two consecutive terms from 2000 to 2008, is leading the race but will have to continue competing in the second round if he does not win enough.
According to RIA Novosti, from midnight to this morning Moscow time, people in the Kamchatka and Magadan regions of Russia began to vote.
Post-voting poll results will be announced immediately after the election ends.
`I know that Mr. Putin is a person with real actions, not just empty words,` said retiree voter Zinaida Bykova, in the eastern city of Vladivostok, after voting for Putin.
In recent weeks, Putin has clarified his election platform with a series of articles, showing his intention to continue building Russia into a strong country in the world, increasing salaries for officials.
`When you live in a democratic society, every vote is important,` said another voter in the same city, Anna Antipenko.
Although observers predicted that Putin was sure to win this election, his opponent, metal billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, still appeared very optimistic when he went to vote with voters in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the Central Highlands region.
`I choose a new Russia. It’s all just begun,` he said.
The system of surveillance cameras at 91,000 out of 96,000 polling stations across Russia has been completed, the Russian Ministry of Communications said.
The first cameras from Russia’s Far East began operating last night Moscow time.
Nearly 6,000 polling stations have new automatic vote counting equipment installed.
The number of voters registered with Russia’s Central Election Commission is 110 million, of which 1,813,000 are registered with consulates abroad.
More than 380,000 police officers, about 30,000 volunteer police auxiliary officers and about 31,000 personal guards will jointly ensure election security across Russia today.
Mr. Ngoc
