According to RT, millions of Russian voters reached 56,000 polling places on September 13 to elect governors and lawmakers in dozens of regions of Russia. After 11 time zones, elections nationwide ended at 8pm local time.
The event is known as " unified Election Day" taking place in 41 regions across the country. A total of 18 of those regions - from Kamchatka in the Far East to Leningrad Oblast in the West - elect governors through direct voting.
Nearly 9,000 election campaigns have taken place in recent days and weeks, with a whopping 156,000 candidates competing for 78,000 positions at the regional, local and city levels.
Hundreds of seats will be won for 11 regional lawmakers and legislative councils in dozens of large and small cities, including Kazan, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Rostov-on-Don. Residents of five towns in Siberia will choose their mayors.
A series of votes in smaller cities also took place on September 13, along with four by-elections held to fill the vacant seats in the Russian State Duma (lower house).
Early voting began on September 12 and ended on September 13. Authorities in the two regions, Kursk and Yaroslavl, allow voters to vote online via a secure web service. The vote counting begins after 8:00 p.m. local time on September 13 in each election area.
The vote has not been affected by any violations, except for four minor cases, according to Ella Pamova, head of the Russian Central Election Commission. Local election committees and election watchers have "reagied quickly" and "properly" to stop them, she said.
This year's national elections will also see new parties compete for regional and city offices. The most notable examples are the left-wing movement "For the Truth" by famous novelist Zakhar Prilepin and "D frontline Democracy" founded by Vyacheslav Makarov, CEO of Wargaming.net - a company famous for online games World of Tanks.
This is the second largest vote held during the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia previously voted to amend the Constitution from June 25 to July 1.
Russia's amendments include a total of 206 amendments, including the main contents related to social issues. Notably, this revised Constitution increased its powers to Duma (House of Representatives) and Russian Federal Council (Senate). In the terms of the number of terms of the Russian President also supplemented the terms not taking into account the number of terms that the President has taken into account to the time the contents of the constitution amendment take effect.
The Kremlin said that Russia's revised Constitution will officially take effect from July 4, 2020.
