Russians cast ballots in 2018 presidential election

This Sunday, almost 111 million Russian citizens vote for the country's next president, while the results of the vote will be announced tomorrow, Sputnik reports.

Russian nationals are electing the country's head of state among eight contenders: Sergei Baburin from the All-People's Union party; Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin; incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin; Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak; Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin; Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights Boris Titov; co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

The candidate to occupy the nation’s highest post – the Russian presidency - is elected according to direct suffrage, which was introduced based on the results of a referendum on March 17, 1991. Any citizen not younger than 35, and who has been permanently residing in Russia for at least 10 years, is eligible to run for office of President of Russia.

On Sunday, March 18, 2018, a total of 96,000 polling stations will begin to open nationwide at 08:00 local time. The voting will last until 20:00 local time, TASS reports.

Some 13,000 journalists representing more than 2,400 Russian media outlets will be covering the elections. In addition, over 1,400 journalists, including 400 foreign reporters, will work at the CEC media center.

"In total, more than 97,000 ballot stations will be used for the voting - 48,000 in cities and more than 48,000 in villages," Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said. Some 2,300 ballot stations will work for special groups of voters at the places of their temporary stay. More than 107 million Russian citizens are eligible to vote now, Pamfilova added.