Moscow (EFE). – The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia reported this Sunday the start of early voting in the Russian presidential elections scheduled for next month for residents of remote areas, ship crews and some military units.
Voting will continue until March 14, as elections begin the next day in the rest of Russian territory and will last three days.
Traditionally, CEC members travel to the most remote areas of the country by helicopter, snowmobile and dog sled during early voting.
In the last Russian presidential election in 2018, only 0.29% of voters (about 180,000 people) voted early.
A woman walks in front of the window of a toy store with a sign announcing the Russian presidential election. EFE/EPA/Maxim Shipenkov
4.5 million voters in the four annexed Ukrainian regions
This week, the Central Election Commission announced that it had registered more than 4.5 million voters for next March's presidential election in the four Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin in September 2022.
4,562,784 voters were registered in Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which are partially occupied by the Russian army. According to CEC representatives, the largest number of voters in the “new Russian regions” was registered in Donetsk with 1,971,526 voters.
Russian election counting
After registering voters from four Ukrainian regions, Russian electoral authorities put Russia's voter list at 112.3 million.
The presidential elections in Russia will take place on March 15-17. The favorite is Vladimir Putin, the current Russian president. The Central Election Commission has registered four candidates: Putin; the communist Nikolai Kharitonov; the ultranationalist Leonid Slutski and the New People's representative Vladislav Davankov.
Despite public assurances that he would not do so, Putin reformed the constitution in 2020 to allow him to run for re-election. In six years he will do this again and this way he will be able to stay in the Kremlin until 2036.