CNN - Russians flock to polls in pivotal election

Russians flock to polls in pivotal election

Yeltsin, Zyuganov cast ballots

June 16, 1996
Web posted at: 8:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin strolled into the polling booth Sunday and confidently cast his ballot in Sunday's historic presidential election that is to decide whether Russia continues its democratic reforms or returns to communism.

"Can I get the results right away?" Yeltsin joked after dropping his ballot in the box.

Asked if his Communist rival Gennady Zyuganov stood a chance of winning, a smiling Yeltsin with his wife at his side gave an impervious sweep of his hand and said: "It's impossible."

Meanwhile, across town at another polling station, Zyuganov begged to differ. "All the votes will be ours," he declared.

Across Russia, voters appeared to be turning out in heavy numbers Sunday for the pivotal election. The far eastern and remote Siberian regions were first to vote -- some nine hours ahead of Moscow time.

Election officials in some of the remote regions reported the turnout at more than 72 percent with two hours of voting left. About 75 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the last election.

In Chukotka, a region only a few miles from Alaska, electrician Nikolai Pavlochkin said he wanted Russia to return to communism.

"I voted for Zyuganov. I'm hoping for order in the country," he said.

Gennady Rasvalyayev, a 58-year-old doctor, voted for Yeltsin: "I don't like everything he's done, but I think it's the circle around him who are bad."

Observers watch for fraud

In all, about 106 million eligible Russian voters will get the chance to decide which direction their country will move in -- four more years of Yeltsin's democratic reforms, a return to communism under Zyuganov or a wild-card vote for one of eight other candidates.

The first unofficial returns are not expected at the Central Electoral Commission in Moscow until the polls close Sunday at Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast (2:45 p.m. EDT Sunday, 1845 GMT) -- 11 time zones away.

However, at 9 a.m. EDT Sunday (1300 GMT), an exit poll statement will be released that indicates voting trends.

About 1,100 international observers have fanned out across the nation to watch for irregularities at any of the 93,000 polling stations. Zyuganov has pledged that up to 200,000 of his Communist-led National Patriotic Bloc supporters will closely monitor polling stations to prevent a fraudulent return as well.

Yeltsin and Zyuganov are expected to emerge as the leaders in the 10-man field. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers will face a runoff now set for July 7.

Yeltsin has billed his re-election bid as a duty to stop a Communist revival that would turn back the clock to Soviet-style repression and economic decline, if not civil war.

Zyuganov says Yeltsin has stripped the country of what he considers a once great past and plunged it into an abyss of poverty and crime. He denies that a victory by him would doom democracy.

And while much of the world will be focused on Sunday's election, Yeltsin will be tuned in to a soccer match between Russia and Germany, a crucial EURO '96 game. He urged all Russians to do the same.

"It's a very important match," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Pivotal Elections: Russia

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Russians flock to polls in pivotal election

Yeltsin, Zyuganov cast ballots

Observers watch for fraud

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