OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2008.  According to spokesman for the Russian embassy to Belarus Alexander Frolov, the ballot boxes have already arrived from Moscow – stationary and mobile. The latter will be used for off-site voting in cases when Russian citizens, willing to take part in the elections, will not be able to show up at polling stations. Voting bulletins (50 thousand pieces) and electioneering literature have arrive as well.

The election commissions include the employees of the Russian embassy to Belarus and Permanent Representative Office of the Russian Federation at the CIS executive bodies. The members of the commissions have visited the polling stations and made sure that everything was ready for the elections.

Alexander Frolov noted that the local authorities contribute greatly to the preparations for the elections and respond to every request of the Russian side.
According to him, it is not clear yet whether observers at elections in Russia will be present in Belarus.

The polling stations will be open March, 2 from 8h00 to 20h00 in Minsk (41 Starovilensky trakt, palace of children and youth), in Vitebsk (1 Mayakovskogo street, city culture centre), in Gomel (17 Lange street, oblast public-cultural center), in Mogilev (61 Leninskaya street, lyceum of Belarusian-Russian university), in Brest (10 Pushkinskaya street, consulate general of Russia), in Grodno (1 Dzerzhinskogo street, culture centre).

An ID certifying the Russian citizenship is necessary for taking part in the elections. Those living temporarily in Belarus have to produce an absentee ballot. Residence permit in Belarus does not grant permission to vote.

There are more than 70 thousand Russian citizens in Belarus, according to the Interior Ministry of Belarus. Almost a half of them are on the consular register.

The results of the elections will be summed up after the closure of the polling stations. On March 3, in the morning, the collected data will be sent to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the special committee that supervises the election campaign of the Russian President throughout the world.