The country’s President Vladimir Putin called on all voters to vote. He said the results of the Russian presidential election “will make the development of the country a reality in the years to come”.
Voting for the presidential election has begun in Russia. Voting started at 8 am local time on Friday (March 15). Voting will continue for three consecutive days and will end next Sunday.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin was also a candidate for this election. Putin faces three rivals in the election this time. They are Leonid Slutsky, head of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov, and Vladislav Davankov representing the liberal centrist New People.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin urged all voters to vote in the election. On the other hand, Ukraine termed the election as a ‘farce’. President Vladimir Putin is running as an independent candidate. If he wins the election, he will become the president for the fifth time and in that case his term of power will be extended till 2030.
He will also hold the record for the longest tenure as President of Russia. The current record for longest serving Russian President is Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Both were in power for 24 years during the former Soviet era.
If the 71-year-old Putin can remain president until 2030, his total term in power will reach 30 years.
However, two Russian candidates were not allowed to compete in this election due to their opposition to the operation of Russian forces in Ukraine. They are Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Dantsova.
Meanwhile, the country’s President Vladimir Putin called on all voters to vote in the election. He said the results of the Russian presidential election “will make the development of the country a reality in the years to come”. “We need to reiterate our determination to move forward in unity,” Putin said. Every vote is valuable and significant. The only source of power in the country is the people, as enshrined in the Russian Constitution.
Describing the election as “a step towards the future”, President Putin also called on Russians “not just to vote, but to firmly declare their will and desire, their personal involvement in the further development of Russia”.
The Kremlin said the election will show that the people of the country have the full support of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, the Kremlin said that polling stations have been set up in the regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia.
Ahead of the election, Ukraine launched aerial bombardments of Russian territory just across the border. The Russian National Guard also said it was fighting an attack by pro-Ukrainian militias in Kursk.
According to data from the Election Commission of Russia, the total number of voters in this election is 112.3 million in the country’s mainland and Ukraine’s Russian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Crimea. Also, there are 19 lakh voters among Russian citizens living in different countries of the world.
In addition, there are about 12,000 voters in the Russian space research center in the city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan and the Russian suburbs that have developed around that center. The Election Commission expects that more than 70 percent of voters will vote in this election.
