DUSHANBE, March 3, Asia-Plus — Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev has garnered 91 percent of votes cast by Russian nationals living in Tajikistan.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Vasily Beldyugin, the head of the consular section at the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, said that six poling stations opened for voters in Tajikistan on March 2. “Turnout at the presidential polls held in Tajikistan hit 50 percent,” said Beldyugin, noting that in all, 10,600 people cast votes.
Six polling stations were set up yesterday at the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, at headquarters of Russian military base in Dushanbe; at the space- surveillance center in Norak, at the Russian Consulate in Khujand, and the military base’s sub-units in Kulob and Qurghon Teppa.
Beldyugin noted that at present more than 12,000 Russian nationals live in Tajikistan permanently. Besides, some 7,000 Russian citizens are currently in Tajikistan on long-term missions, including servicemen of the Russian military base, officers of the Russian operational group and specialists constructing the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant.
We will recall that a number of Russian nationals living in Tajikistan participated in an early Russia’s vote for president on February 24. Early elections were held at polling stations opened in Tursunzoda, at the site for the Sangtuda-1 power plant, at the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, as well as at Sughd’s towns of Istaravshan, Isfara and Chkalovsk. 28 border officers cast vote at the polling station opened at the Embassy, 208 Russian nationals cast vote at the polling station opened at the Sangtuda-1 site, 80 Russian citizens had cast vote in Tursunzoda and 370 Russian citizens cast vote in the Sughd province.
The Russian presidential election of 2008 had Dmitry Medvedev, a Kremlin-backed candidate supported by incumbent president Vladimir Putin, the candidates of the Communist party, the nationalist LDPR and pro-Western and Kremlin-linked DPR (Democratic Party of Russia).
Commenting on the total results of voting in Tajikistan, Beldyugin said that Russian First Deputy Premier Dmitry Medvedev had received 10,464 votes (91%) of Russians living in Tajikistan, Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov received 516 votes (some 5%), nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky – 382 votes or 3.7%, and the DPT leader Andrey Bogdanov received only 35 votes (0.3 percent).
Russian media report that President Putin has congratulated the man he publicly-backed to succeed him as Russian leader on a firm lead in Sunday”s presidential elections.
According to RIA Novosti, as of 7:00 p.m., Dmitry Medvedev has so far garnered 67.70% of the vote with 45% of the ballots counted in Russia”s presidential polls, according to the Central Election Commission. Gennady Zyuganov has reportedly received 18.72%, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky – 10.91% and the leader of the tiny, pro-Western Democratic Party, Andrey Bogdanov – 1.39%.
The Central Election Commission said turnout was 64.23% as of 7:00 p.m. Moscow time. If results stay as they are, Medvedev will avoid a second round of voting.
In the meantime, Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky announced they may contest the results of the poll in court, citing voting violations.
Many Western observers, including the OSCE”s main election arm, chose to boycott the election over restrictions imposed by Russia. Moscow rejected claims that it had imposed restrictions on monitors however.
Critics also pointed to pressure on voters to cast their ballots, especially employees of state-run organizations.
A CIS election monitoring mission said the elections had been held in full accordance with the law.
