Early voting for the presidential election has begun in Russia

On Sunday, February 25, early voting for the presidential election began in the Russian Federation. According to the Central Election Commission, the decision to hold an “early term” was made in 42 constituent entities, but each independently determines the timing of this type of expression of will. Traditionally, residents of hard-to-reach areas – shift workers, reindeer herders, border guards, fishermen and mine employees – vote early. But this time they were joined by citizens and special operation participants in new regions.

Far Easterners traditionally voted the earliest in presidential elections. As reported by the Khabarovsk Territory Election Commission, the first voters were employees of the Kur weather station, Alexander and Maria. Members of the precinct election commission (PEC) reached the base, located in the north of the left bank part of the Khabarovsk region, by Mi-8 helicopter from the nearby village of Pobeda. In total, early voting in the region will cover about 13 thousand people, said Denis Kuzmenko, chairman of the regional election commission.

Let us remind you that according to the law, “early voting” starts 20 days before the main vote (it will take place from March 15 to 17). The decision on holding it in hard-to-reach and remote areas, on ships and polar stations, as well as on the timing of the expression of will, is made by the regional election commission. During the 2018 presidential elections, during the “early term”, 220 thousand people in 40 regions ticked the ballots, or 0.3% of the total number of voters (the turnout then was 67.5%). This time, the number of subjects that decided on early voting has increased to 42. It will also take place in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

As Kommersant previously reported (see issue dated February 7), in connection with the special operation, the entire territory of the new subjects was declared inaccessible. The Zaporozhye region was the first to start voting, where stationary polling stations opened near the line of combat contact on February 25. As Galina Katyushchenko, chairman of the election commission, said, both local residents and military personnel vote there. In addition, PEC members with portable boxes have begun working in remote municipalities, she added. In the Kherson region, the “early term” will be organized in two sessions: from February 27 to 29, it will be possible to make a choice in the first half of the municipal districts, including Genichesk and Novaya Kakhovka, and from March 1 to 3 – in the second, including Kakhovka and Skadovsk. In the DPR and LPR, the expression of will will begin later – on March 10 and 11, respectively.

As for the “old” subjects, here early voting, according to tradition, will affect residents of settlements that do not have regular communications with the “mainland”, border guards, rotation workers, as well as those engaged in folk crafts. For example, in Kamchatka, 39 reindeer herders living in remote national camps in the Bystrinsky district voted on Sunday, deputy chairman of the regional election commission Igor Shamraev told Kommersant. And on Monday, PEC members will go by helicopter to the most remote and sparsely populated Kamchatka village of Paren, where less than 50 people live. In total, the “early term” will cover about 1.5 thousand voters “on land” and more than 7 thousand in sailing, Mr. Shamraev added.

In the largest region by area – Yakutia – about 13 thousand people will be able to vote early: mainly prospectors, shift workers, herd workers, reindeer herders and weather station workers, the Republican Central Election Commission told Kommersant. 270 departures by ground transport are planned (the total length of the route will exceed 30 thousand km) and 104 air departures (more than 20 thousand km). On Sunday, residents of the ancestral reindeer herding community “Bolshoy Begichev”, as well as herdsmen of the Khangalassky ulus, have already voted.

On the territory of the largest Russian peninsula, Taimyr (Krasnoyarsk Territory), workers in the gas fields of the Messoyakha and Pelyatkinskoye fields, reindeer herding teams in the Tukhard, Noskovskaya and Potapovskaya tundra, as well as fishermen in Sever Bay and the Dudinsky seaport can already make a choice. From February 25 to March 14, early voting will be held in Tuva. In the Amur region it will begin on Monday, and in the Irkutsk region, where three meteorologists at the Khadama station will be the first to vote, on February 29. At the same time, 12 military personnel at the Russian-Chinese border post in the Nerchinsko-Zavodsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory will also exercise the right to choose. In Buryatia, from March 1, “early term” starts at the Kedrovka and Vitimkon gold deposits, where 250 people work. In the Sverdlovsk region, from March 3, Mansi living in the tundra will be able to vote. But, for example, in the Altai Territory and Tomsk Region, early voting will begin later and will last only two days – from March 10 to 12. In the Altai Republic, the “early extension” is planned from March 5 to 14, in Khakassia – from the 10th to the 14th.

In traditionally shipping regions, the largest number of early workers will be seafarers. Thus, in Primorye there are 215 corresponding PECs, to which more than 8 thousand voters are assigned, and in the Kaliningrad region – 17 (about 800 people). Finally, there will be a completely exotic “early term”. For example, in Dagestan, voters on the island of Chechen in the Caspian Sea will vote before other residents of the republic. Administratively, it belongs to the Kirov district of Makhachkala, but is separated from it by a hundred kilometers and a sea strait. In Soviet times, there was a large fish farm in Chechnya, but after the collapse of the USSR, the island fell into disrepair, and now about 200 people live there. Voting there will take place on March 3.

On March 11, residents of the village of Chursya in the Oparinsky district of the Kirov region will be able to vote early. Previously, there was a timber industry enterprise there, but after the closure of the enterprise and the narrow-gauge railway leading to it, the only mode of transport remained the swamp vehicle. Administratively, Chursya, where 19 people live, is subordinate to the Kirov region, but is actually located inside the Priluzsky district of the Komi Republic and is an exclave.

Andrey Prah, corset “Kommersant”