RUSSIA: Residents of Vladivostok cast their ballots in presidential poll

Record ID: 327704

  • Title: RUSSIA: Residents of Vladivostok cast their ballots in presidential poll
  • Date: 5th March 2012
  • Summary: VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA (MARCH 4, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS CITY VIEWS / SKYLINES PEDESTRIANS WAITING AT CROSSWALK VOTER REGISTERING AT POLLING STATION POLLING STATION WORKERS MAN CASTING VOTE INTO BALLOT BOX BALLOTS IN BOX VOTING BOOTHS MAN CASTING BALLOT WEB CAMERAS ON WALL SOLDIERS WITH POLLING STATION WORKERS POLLING STATION WORKERS MAN VIEWING BALLOT BOX BALLOTS IN BOX VARIOUS WOMEN REGISTERING TO VOTE POLLING STATION WORKER EXAMINING DOCUMENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VLADIVOSTOK RESIDENT ALEKSANDRA ROGOZA, SAYING: "Of course, what do you think? We've been coming (to vote) our whole lives, so that there would be some kind of changes. We hope for the best; for everything to be good, and we want something to change, so that our lives would be easier." RUSSIAN FLAG ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VLADIVOSTOK RESIDENT GENNADY NIKOLAYEV, SAYING: "Back then we had free medicine, free education, our kindergartens were free - everything was free, because we were really counted as human beings. Now they think of us....now our salaries are small. Who of the candidates (should we vote for)? Prokhorov? How should we vote? He stole everything from the people, and now to vote for him? No (I'm voting) only for the Communists." BALLOT BEING CAST IN BOX (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VLADIVOSTOK RESIDENT NATALIA MASLOVSKAYA, SAYING: "Why (am I voting)? I want to participate. I want to finally participate in the life of the country somehow." VARIOUS PEDESTRIANS AND TRAFFIC ON STREET AND SIDEWALK
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1OBH9IV2CHEVJZL7JQ3YXJ4J3
  • Story Text: Residents of Vladivostok in Russia's Far East began trickling into polling stations early on Sunday (March 4) to vote in a new president in an election that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is widely forecast to win.
    After showing their documents to polling station workers voters filled their ballots out in curtained voting boots, and cast them in sealed, transparent ballot boxes.
    One voter, Vladivostok resident Aleksandra Rogoza said she had been voting her whole life.
    "Of course, what do you think? We've been coming (to vote) our whole lives, so that there would be some kind of changes. We hope for the best; for everything to be good, and we want something to change, so that our lives would be easier," Rogoza told Reuters.
    Another Vladivostok resident Gennady Nikolayev said that he supported the Communists.
    "Back then we had free medicine, free education, our kindergartens were free - everything was free, because we were really counted as human beings. Now they think of us....now our salaries are small. Who of the candidates (should we vote for)? Prokhorov? How should we vote? He stole everything from the people, and now to vote for him? No (I'm voting) only for the Communists," Nikolayev told Reuters.
    In Vladivostok, a port city of 600,000 people on the Pacific and the biggest city in Russia's Far East, Russia's Communist Party made significant gains against Putin's United Russia in the recent December elections.
    For many Russians disillusioned by rampant corruption and a widening gap between rich and poor, the communists represented the only credible opposition to Putin's United Russia.
    Another voter said she came to the polls to take part in her country's civic life.
    "Why (am I voting)? I want to participate. I want to finally participate in the life of the country somehow," Vladivostok resident Natalia Maslovskaya told Reuters.
    A recent poll from the Levada Centre, Russia's largest public research firm, suggested that Vladimir Putin will win the election with 63-66 percent of the vote, far ahead of his closest rival, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who is forecast to win 15 percent of the vote.
    Other candidates in the running are the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the liberal A Just Russia party Sergei Mironov, and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov who has found a following among young urban voters.
    Russians in the Far East begin voting eight hours before Muscovites.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register