95 percent of Russian nationals living in Tajikistan have reportedly voted for the incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin.
RIA Novosti news agency, citing Valery Dergachev, Counselor of Russia’s Embassy in Dushanbe, reports that 11,000 people cast their ballots at five polling stations in Tajikistan, and according to the preliminary data, 95 percent of them have voted for Vladimir Putin.
According to him, other candidates have received a total of 5 percent.
Dergachev noted that no violations or incidents had been reported and no written complaints had been filed, according to RIA Novosti.
Polling stations have reportedly been set up at the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Dushanbe, Russian Consulate in Khujand (the capital of the Sughd province) as well as at the units of Russian military base in Dushanbe and Qurghon Teppa (the capital of the Khatlon province) and Russia's Okno (Window) space-monitoring complex, located at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the mountains near the Tajik eastern city of Nurek.
The Russian incumbent President Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for another six years, after securing an expected victory in Sunday's presidential election. Official results show that Vladimir Putin, who has ruled the country as either president or prime minister since 1999, got more than 76% of the vote.
Putin's nearest competitor, candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Pavel Grudinin, received about 12%.
The race also included Ksenia Sobchak, a former reality TV host, and veteran nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky – they got less than 2% and about 6% respectively.
The Kremlin had initially hoped that Vladimir Putin would get at least 70 percent of the vote with a 70 percent turnout, but on Sunday it appeared unlikely to achieve that goal, according to still preliminary figures. If the turnout figure does not change, it may end up being below the level in 2012, 65 percent.
