MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – More than 6.9 million people are included in the voting lists for the 2024 elections, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Igor Karpenko told reporters, BelTA has learned.
“Early voting has begun today. It will be running from 12:00 to 19:00 from 20 February through 24 February. Early voting is not new for Belarus and a number of other countries. Tonight we will get the first preliminary results on voter turnout. It is gratifying that young people actively show up to cast their ballot. A total of 5,411 polling stations have been set up in the country. By the opening of polling stations, a little more than 6.9 million people were on the voting lists, including slightly more than 95,000 citizens of the Russian Federation who have the right to vote in local elections,” said Igor Karpenko.
He noted that a lot of work had been done before the start of the voting. "We conducted special workshops for precinct election commissions. A special training video was made for them. We checked the readiness of all polling stations, equipment, fire and technical safety measures. All polling stations have been taken under police protection," Igor Karpenko noted.
According to the CEC, there were a total of 6,913,965 voters on the voters’ lists as of 20 February 2024. These include 1,303,280 voters in the city of Minsk, 996,054 voters in Brest Oblast; 859,867 voters in Vitebsk Oblast, 1,065,914 voters in Gomel Oblast, 742,802 voters in Grodno Oblast, 1,150,916 voters in Minsk Oblast, and 795,132 voters in Mogilev Oblast.