A festive atmosphere prevails in many embassies of the Russian Federation on the African continent today. Permanent or temporary Russians living here come here to vote in the election of the head of the Russian state.
Russians in Africa can exercise their political right and express their civil will in the presidential election at polling stations in 47 African countries. They are open today from 08:00 to 20:00 local time. Before that, in some countries, for example, in South Africa, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Angola and Sao Tome and Principe, early mobile voting took place.
Many embassy telegram channels are posting photos from polling stations, which are decorated with flowers, colorful festive balls.
Many Russian citizens came to the presidential election in Namibia with their children! And in some other countries – even in African national costumes.
Since the polling stations are mainly organized on the territory of the Russian Federation embassies, the security requirements there are very serious. Thus, at the entrance to the polling station, voters are asked to leave oversized bags, are not allowed to bring electronic devices into the territory of the polling station, and are asked to switch off mobile phones and leave them in one of the storage boxes, which are equipped with polling stations.
In Hurghada, Consul General V.S. Voropaev presented flowers and a commemorative gift to the first voter who voted. And in Luanda our Ambassador V. N. Tararov and his family voted first.
Most African countries have one polling station each. In Morocco and South Africa there are two. In Egypt, voting is taking place at three polling stations, and in Hurghada the queue of those wishing to vote is growing – by the beginning of the fourth day about 600 Russian citizens had already fulfilled their civic duty.
In Nigeria, many of our compatriots come to the polling station with their families, and the voting process is being actively covered by the local media. In the capital of Senegal, Dakar, 42 people had already voted by 11am.
In Madagascar, as of 14:00, 62 Russians had cast their votes.
The Russian embassy in Rwanda noted a high voter turnout.
But in the Central African Republic, according to Russian ambassador Alexander Bikantov, voting is taking place under the protection of our military instructors: “everything is going smoothly, according to plan.”
The Russian presidential election was held at the Russian Embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli for the first time in 12 years. The head of the Russian diplomatic mission Aidar Aganin told RIA Novosti.
“The embassy is holding elections in Libya for the first time since 2012, so we thank everyone who attended and voted for one of the candidates. The elections were held in a positive atmosphere,” the ambassador said.
According to the diplomatic mission, about 200 Russian citizens are now living in the African country.
“The embassy conducted a very long preparatory work for the voting, and much had to be done from scratch, starting with the installation of voting booths and ballot boxes,” Aganin said.
According to him, the embassy notified the Libyan authorities in advance of the Russian presidential election, which took place here on 15 March, and was in constant contact with them on this issue.
Aganin thanked the authorities of the African country for providing security for the work of the Russian diplomatic mission during the voting period.
Many people who voted on that day said that the Russian presidential election was generally calm, no violations were recorded, everything happened in strict compliance with the law. People are relaxed, calmly come and vote. Everything is organized correctly, consistently and in a timely manner!
The high voter turnout at the elections of the Russian head of state on the African continent shows the maturity and responsibility of the citizens of the Russian Federation for the fate of their country. Especially now, when they are trying to impose political and economic isolation on Russia.
Yulia Novitskaya, correspondent of the “New Eastern Outlook“
