Russians vote in presidential polls

Five candidates - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov and the only independent, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov - are running in the March 4 vote.

Putin, who was Russia's president from 2000 to 2008 and has been prime minister since then, has led the race but may be forced into a second round if he gets less than 50 percent of the vote in the first.

The winner in the first round will be inaugurated as new president in early May.

The elections are taking place to the backdrop of mass demonstrations that were triggered by allegations of vote fraud at December's parliamentary polls. None of the candidates opposing Putin represent the burgeoning protest movement, although all have - to some extent - expressed sympathy with its demands, which include a rerun of last year's vote.

Voting

Election officials said over fifteen percent of voters had cast ballots by 10 a.m Moscow time (06:00 GMT), an increase on the 8.9 percent by the same time at the 2008 elections, which saw victory for Putin's handpicked successor, President Dmitry Medvedev.

The first regions to go to the polls were Kamchatka and Magadan, where voting started at midnight Saturday/Sunday Moscow Time (20:00 GMT Saturday) and ended at noon Moscow time.

Voting will end after polling stations close in Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad exclave at 9:00 p.m. Moscow time on Sunday.

Results of the exit polls will be announced after voting is finished, and the first preliminary official results are expected to be made public by midnight Sunday/Monday (20:00 GMT Sunday) or in the early hours on Monday.

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