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Voting for the governor of the Kurgan region will begin at 8 a.m. local time. As for legislative assemblies, they will begin in Kabardino-Balkaria, Tatarstan and Tuva. Finally, elections for heads and deputies of municipal representative bodies will begin in Ulan-Ude, Blagoveshchensk, Irkutsk, Kurgan and Naryan-Mar.
In total, more than 57 million people will be able to exercise their right to vote over the three days. According to the Central Election Commission, more than 73.1 thousand candidates are registered to participate in election campaigns at various levels in Russian regions.
In addition, in Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Crimea, regional heads will be elected by deputies of local parliaments.
The elections will thus cover all 83 electoral regions out of a total of 89. Voters will still vote for governors, deputies of legislative assemblies and the State Duma, as well as heads of municipalities. It should be noted that more than 4,000 election campaigns are taking place in the country these days. In 21 regions, governors are elected by direct vote.
Many Russians are choosing a convenient method: remote voting. Seventy-five percent of online voters had cast their votes by the middle of the second day of voting using remote electronic voting on the federal platform (this figure does not include Muscovites, who have their own platform).
How they voted on the second day
Voter turnout in Moscow on the second day of voting was 33.6%. In St. Petersburg, the turnout was 27.04%.
Residents of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine are still active, despite the threat of being attacked. The turnout in the regional gubernatorial elections on the second day was 52.2%. The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, linked these turnout figures with the desire of Kursk residents to show a civic position, with the consolidation of society against the enemy. Let us recall that in the border regions elections are held in a special order, using additional forms, including voting in local areas. This is to ensure the safety of voters.
The performance of other regions at the end of the second day is different. Thus, in the Khabarovsk Territory the turnout was 21.95%. There is also little activity in the Republic of Mari El. The percentage of voters was 20.8%. And the turnout, according to the results of two days of voting in the elections in Khakassia, was only 16.65%.
In the Orenburg region, the turnout was 41.68%. In the Samara region, the turnout by 8 p.m. was 40.35%. Residents of the Kemerovo region are traditionally active. At the closing of polling stations on Saturday, the turnout in Kuzbass was 54.61%. Bashkiria is also voting well. On the second day of voting, the overall turnout was 51.78%.
In the Astrakhan region, after two days of voting, the turnout was 34.97%. In the Chelyabinsk region, it was even lower: 24.26%. Voter turnout in the elections in the Tula region is so far 36.6%. In the Vologda region – 37.4%. In the Altai Republic, by the end of the second day of voting, the turnout was 29.2%. In the Trans-Baikal Territory – 31.65%.
However, some of these regions are actively voting remotely. Thus, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, the Republic of Mari El ranks first in terms of the number of online voters with a turnout of 89%, followed by the Altai Republic with 87%.
There are many lies surrounding the elections due to attempts to discredit them. Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council and president of the Independent Public Monitoring Association, said that attempts to interfere in the electoral process by Ukrainian special services were recorded in the Kursk region. “All false messages about problems that reach the public monitoring headquarters are immediately transferred to public observers who go to the site or, while at the site, take photos and talk to voters and commission members,” Brod said.
In addition to the Kursk region, the wave of falsifications, according to the association, affected St. Petersburg the most. There, reports were made that the same people were supposedly voting at different polling stations. The reports were not confirmed.
So far, no serious violations have been reported. It is true that there was information about one violation indirectly related to the elections. As it became known, investigators have opened a case of poisoning of lunches at polling stations in two districts of the northern capital.
