Commission Urges Russians to Vote Sunday

The Central Election Commission ( CEC) Wednesday urged Russian voters to cast their ballots in Sunday's presidential elections to "decide the destiny" of the country.

Although 11 contestants will vie for the presidency Sunday, Acting President Vladimir Putin remains the runaway favorite. There are fears that many voters may not turn up Sunday, believing Putin's victory is a foregone outcome.

For the election results to be valid, voter turnout must be over 50 percent. Otherwise, a new election should be conducted within four months after the voting, or three months after the day when the polling is declared invalid.

"On this day (Sunday), all of us will be deciding the destiny of our country, the future of our children and grandchildren," the CEC said in an address to the nation.

According to a latest opinion poll conducted on March 12, 42 percent of the 1,600 respondents believed that a second round of voting would be inevitable.

In addition, Putin's approval rating slipped while support for his rivals grew, the Interfax news agency reported, quoting results of the poll by the independent Agency for Regional Political Studies.

Of the respondents who will definitely cast their ballots or will probably do so, 48.4 percent intend to vote for Putin, down by 14.6 percentage points since the beginning of February. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov is in the second place with a supporting rate of 28 percent, 6 percentage points higher. Rating for Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, 8.9 percent, has nearly doubled. Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky is in the fourth place with 3.8 percent. Under Russia's election law, Putin faces a run-off three weeks later if he could not seize more than 50 percent of votes in the first round.

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