Russia goes to polls amidst tight security

MOSCOW, MARCH 26: Russians are today voting to elect the second post-Soviet president of their country who would end the painful decade of...

MOSCOW, MARCH 26: Russians are today voting to elect the second post-Soviet president of their country who would end the painful decade of transition from Soviet Union to the new Russian statehood.

Polling began at all the 94 thousand-odd polling booths with the authorities deploying over 500,000 police and security personnel fearing Chechen terrorist attacks on the election day. According to local media, in Moscow alone over 70,000 police and security personnel are on election duty. There is a significant presence of interior ministry troops, with soldiers inspecting underground metro trains at stations.

In Chechnya, after reports of sporadic attacks by the militants on election eve, the army has imposed a 48-hour ban on travelling and sealed its borders with the neighbouring provinces to prevent terrorist strikes. In the country sprawling over 11 time zones, voting commenced today when 385 polling stations threw open their doors in Chukotka and Kamchatka at 8 am local time (1.30 am IST) on Sunday.

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The voting will end at 9 pm Moscow summer time (22.30 IST) with the closing of polling stations in Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad in West at 8 pm local time, one hour behind Moscow.

Early returns would start pouring in from 9 pm tonight (22.30 IST) and the Central Election Commission is planing to declare preliminary results of automatic electronic counting at 10 am tomorrow (11.30 IST) when 90 per cent votes would have been counted, Russia’s Chief Election Commissioner Alexander Veshnyakov said at the inauguration of a special press centre in Moscow on Saturday.

However, the final results will be declared not before April 4-5, when all the necessary papers reach Moscow from local constituencies, Veshnyakov added. About 1,000 foreign observers from 57 countries including India and over 80 international organisations have been accredited for monitoring the presidential polls, seen by many keen Kremlin-watchers as "Referendum for appointing Putin".

Sources said the main thrust would be on monitoring the counting process as Putin’s main rival, Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov has warned about attempts of ballot-rigging. Zyuganov, who has deputed his monitors to almost each and every polling booth, warned that he will challenge the results of the election if his monitors are not given the copy of the official counting protocol.