Putin wins presidential election with nearly 64 pct of vote Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (2nd L) walks with Russia's president...
Putin wins presidential election with nearly 64 pct of vote
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MOSCOW, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian presidential candidate and incumbent Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won a resounding victory in Sunday's presidential election with about 64 percent of the vote, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) said Monday.
CEC Chairman Vladimir Churov announced the preliminary results of the election after 99.3 percent of the ballots were counted early on Monday.
"According to preliminary results, Vladimir Putin was elected president of the Russian Federation with 63.75 percent of the vote," Churov said.
"As you see, the election was held in one round," he added.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov pocketed 17.19 percent, while independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov came in third with 7.82 percent.
About 6.23 percent of the vote went to Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and 3.85 percent to A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov.
Churov said final results would be released within 10 days of polling day, adding that the margin of error between the preliminary results and the final ones would be no more than 0.1 percent.
The chairman also confirmed that the voter's turnout stood at 65.3 percent, slightly lower than the 69.7 percent in the 2008 election, but higher than the 64.3 percent in 2004.
Putin, who is not a man known for showing his emotions, declared his victory Sunday night with tears in his eyes, after exit poll results showed he would win 58.3 percent of the vote.
His spokesman Dmitry Peskov told media that Putin was ready for dialogues with members of the opposition.
Putin's rivals Zhirinovsky and Mironov have called Putin to congratulate him on the victory. Both Zyuganov and Prokhorov claimed the election was unfair.
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