Photo credit: mos.ru (CC BY 4.0)
The elections started in Russia on Friday, September, 17, RIA Novosti reports. Within three days, until September 19, citizens of the Russian Federation will vote for candidates for the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament). Members of regional and local parliaments have to be elected in 39 regions, and regional leaders will be elected in nine regions.
The polling stations will be working every day, from 8:00 till 20:00. Almost 4,500 election campaigns at all levels in all regions of the country have been scheduled for these three days; more than 31,000 mandates will be substituted for them.
State Duma deputies are elected for a five-year term. Half of them, 225 deputies, pass according to party lists, the remaining 225 - in single-mandate constituencies in one round.
Twenty-three parties passed the registration stage for elections at all levels this year, they nominated about 74,000 candidates.
On average, 13 people apply for one seat in the State Duma.
There have been repeated statements about attempts to interfere in the Russian elections from abroad in various ways.
The number of voters in Russia exceeds 108 million people. Another two million people are eligible to vote abroad.
Russkiy Mir
