In Dar es Salaam, Russian residents who work and live in Tanzania will exercise their democratic right as they cast their ballot at the Russian Cultural Center.
Russians go to polls on Sunday March 18, in an election that pits the incumbent President Vladmir Putin against seven other contestants for the Kremlin job.
In Dar es Salaam, Russian residents who work and live in Tanzania will exercise their democratic right as they cast their ballot at the Russian Cultural Center.
Speaking to The Citizen, the Russian ambassador to Tanzania Mr Yuri Popov said there were three categories of Russian Citizens living in the country who are eligible to cast their votes.
“We have members of the diplomatic call, businessmen and women, tourists and women who are married to Tanzanians but are originally from Russia,” he said.
He added: The casting of the ballot shall kick off early in the morning at around 9:30.
This year’s election features eight candidates who are battling Putin who is widely expected to win given the over 40 per cent lead in the opinion polls that were carried throughout the campaigns.
The candidates for the 2018 elections include Sergey Baburin, Parvel Grudinin, Maxim Suraykin, Boris Titov, Grigory Yavlinsky, Vladmir Zhirinovsky and the youngest of all, 36-year-old Ksenia Sobchak a former TV anchor, socialite and actress.
The Russian electoral law requires that a candidate wins the election with more than 50 per cent of the total ballot cast and should this fail then they will have to go for a rerun which has to take place three weeks later.
The President of Russian Federation is elected directly for a term of six years, from the original Four years after it was changed during Dmitry Medvedev’s administration.
President Putin is seeking reelection for a second consecutive term and a fourth term overall after his first stint before handing over to the current Prime Minister Medvedev.
