ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 12, 2004 Friday 8:53 AM Eastern Time

Russian citizens in CIS states preparing to vote in March 14 polls

Chairman of Russia’s Central Electoral Commission Alexander
Veshnyakov said the number of polling stations had increased in
Georgia and Moldova, and that a precinct electoral commission and
eight polling stations were set up in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Deputy Defence Minister Igor Puzanov said more than 80,000 people
will be able to vote at 48 polling stations the ministry had set up
in CIS republics.

According to the FSB Border Guard Service, 11 polling places were set
up in Tajikistan and Armenia, and three polling stations at
borderguard groups in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which may
receive up to 7,000 voters.

Twenty-one polling stations will be opened in Ukraine where some
62,000 Russians live or work.

In Belarus where 60,000 Russian citizens live, seven polling stations
will function.

Ten polling stations will be available for 80,000 RF citizens living
in Moldova.

In Tajikistan, 20,000 Russians, including border guards and
servicemen from the 201st division, will be able to take part in the
March 14 voting. Advance voting was arranged for remote border
outposts in Tajikistan from March 9.

Kazakhstan has 10 polling stations for 30,000 RF citizens.

In Kyrgyzstan, voting in the March 14 polls is organized in all large
settlements densely populated by Russians. There are some 15,000 RF
citizens in the republic. The servicemen at the Kant air base will
vote on Saturday.

There are two polling stations for RF citizens in Azerbaijan, with a
1,500-strong Russian electorate. They were set up under the Russian
Embassy in Baku and the Daryal Information and Analytical Center
(formerly the Gabalinskaya radar facility).

In Armenia, up to 8,000 RF citizens are expected to take part in the
March 14 election. The republic has ten polling stations, including
the military township of Kanaker where a Russian army unit is
deployed, and in Gyumri, where the headquarters of the 120th military
base is located.

Fifteen polling stations were set up in Georgia, an official at the
Russian Embassy in Tbilisi told Itar-Tass.

By now, part of Russian peacekeepers in Kodori Gorge, Gali district,
Abkhazia, and in Tskhinvali, South Ossetiam have already voted.

Turkmenistan has five voting stations for 63,00 RF citizens. Head of
the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Ashgabad Andrei
Brovarets expressed the hope that the electorate would be more active
compared with the December parliamentary election, at which just
3,000 Russians voted.

Uzbekistan has one polling station, set up at the Russian Embassy in
Tashkent, for more than 17,000 RF citizens. Everything is ready for
the polls, Russian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Farit Mukhametshin told
Itar-Tass. Advance voting took place in four Uzbek cities on March 6
and March 7.