As the ongoing war in Ukraine continues for over two years and conflict with the US and West rages on, Russia will go to the polls on Friday, with President Vladimir Putin most certain to return for a fifth term in power.
According to Al Jazeera, the presidential election has an all-but-certain outcome and incumbent Putin is widely predicted to win a fifth term.
The voters will cast their ballots over three days from March 15-17, though early and postal voting has already begun, including in parts of Ukraine, which are now under Russian control amid the ongoing conflict.
A second round of voting would take place three weeks after this weekend if no candidate gets more than half the vote.
Notably, Russians are electing the position of president only; the next legislative elections, which form the makeup of the Duma, are scheduled for 2026.
If re-elected, Putin will stay in power till at least 2030, with another potential term in hand paved by the 2021 constitutional amendment that allowed him to run for two more presidential terms, potentially extending his rule until 2036.
Putin, who also served as the Prime Minister of Russia from 2008 to 2012, in addition to his terms as President from 2000-08 and 2012-24, would become the longest-reigning Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.
Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) approved only three candidates to oppose Putin: Leonid Slutsky of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vladislav Davankov of the centre-right New People, and Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party.
Notably, two prominent ‘anti-war’ candidates were barred from running. Yekaterina Duntsova was rejected by the CEC for alleged errors in her registration documents. Boris Nadezhdin later submitted the 1,00,000 signatures required to oppose Putin, before the CEC in February deemed only 95,587 of these to be legitimate, CNN reported.
Al Jazeera cited a report by Levada Center, a non-governmental polling organization, which stated that Putin’s approval rating stands at over 86 per cent, which has further risen amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
“I’m voting for Putin because I trust him,” 69-year-old Tatyana, from Moscow, told Al Jazeera.
