Over 130,000 Russians Want to Become Public Observers of Presidential Vote

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - More than 130,000 Russian citizens have expressed their desire to become public observers of the presidential election, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Civic Chamber Alexander Tochenov told reporters on Monday.

"At the moment, more than 130,000 observers have been selected by us alongside regional chambers," Tochenov, who is also head of the working group on monitoring the implementation of electoral rights, said.

He noted that the special working group would check all submitted documents, after which the exact number of observers being sent to polling places would become clear.

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The results of the public observation of the election are set to be summed up at the forum of observers, which will be held a week after the election.

"We will hold a forum gathering our observers, representatives of the regions, sometime next week, approximately on [March] 21, where we will sum up the results," Tochenov added.

Russia's presidential election is scheduled for Sunday, and there are eight candidates running this year: Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin, Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov, co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky.