Russians began voting on Sunday across Russia’s Far East to elect a president for the fifth time in the nation’s post-Soviet history.
Polling places have so far opened in the Amur, Sakhalin, Magadan and Kamchatka regions, the Chukotka and Jewish autonomous areas, the Khabarovsk and Primorye Territories and the Republic of Yakutia.
In the first few hours, voter turnout was over 27 percent in the Chukotka Region, seven percent in the Magadan Region and the Khabarovsk Territory, about 10 percent in Kamchatka, and five percent in the Jewish area.
Five candidates - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov and the only independent, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov - vie for the Russian presidency in the March 4 vote.
