The Central Election Commission (CEC) reported this Saturday (16) that more than half of voters had voted in the Russian election for president by the start of the second day of voting. To the Polls will open again on Sunday (17) to close the election.
According to the CEC, 51.77% of Russians participated in the elections until the last update of the Russian electoral system, which includes electronic voting, heavily criticized by the president's opposition for the supposed lack of transparency. Putin voted online on Friday and again accused the United States of interfering in the process.
In Moscow, where the majority of voters voted electronically, almost 4 million people have already registered to vote. In several regions of the Far East and Siberia, more than two-thirds of the electorate voted, while in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which this month marks the tenth anniversary of its annexation to Russia, turnout is close to 60%.
According to the CEC, no incidents, cyber attacks or incursions on Ukraine's borders prevent Russians from turning out to vote in the presidential elections, the eighth held since 1991.
While analysts acknowledge that they did not expect such a high turnout, the opposition suspects that the authorities have resorted to administrative resources to force the vote from employees in the public sector, Putin's electoral hotbed.
According to official polls, the current president, who is competing with three other candidates, has a voting intention above 80%so that he will have no difficulty in achieving his biggest electoral victory since coming to power in 2000, completing 24 years in power.
The representative of the Gente Nova party, Vladislav Davankov, and the communist Nikolai Kharitonov have 6% support among those consulted. In turn, ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky appears with around 5% of the votes.
Part of the opposition to the Kremlin decided to support Davankov, whose position on the war is ambiguous, while others went to the electoral colleges at 12 pm to take part in the action known as “Noon without Putin”, which provoked threats against the participants with the opening of criminal proceedings by the Russian Public Prosecutor's Office.
After the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his supporters – who hold Putin directly responsible – called on the West not to recognize the election results.
#Russian #election #enters #day #expectation #votes #Putin