Penza, 13 September 2015. PenzaNews. The Penza region Legislative Assembly chairman Valery Lidin was one of the first people to visit the polling station No. 47 located in the building of the school No. 30 on Mira street in Penza in the morning of Sunday, September 13.

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Valery Lidin arrived to the polling station at about 8.35. He was cheerful and smiling.

After the election committee officers provided the speaker of the regional parliament with a voting ballot, he quickly made his vote in secret in the nearby voting box, and then registered his vote at the electronic ballot box.

In a Q&A session with the journalists after the vote, the Penza region Legislative Assembly chairman said the election campaign in the run-up to September 13 was very highly organized, partially thanks to all candidates.

“It was very civilized, more than ever, within the bounds of the law. Nobody received a single complaint from the voters over the election campaign. This is a sign that all candidates paid great respect to their voters – citizens of the Penza region,” Valery Lidin said.

As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, September 13 is the day of the Penza region gubernatorial election, as well as special elections of deputies for local government bodies of several municipalities.

All 1,105 polling stations in the Penza region for the gubernatorial election opened at 8.00. They will remain operational until 20.00, at which point vote counting will begin.

The five officially registered candidates for the Penza region gubernatorial election are Vladimir Simagin (CPRF), Zhigansha Tuktarov (LDPR), Ivan Belozertsev (United Russia), Gennady Yeroshin (“A Just Russia”) and Vladimir Popkov (“Rodina”).

According to the Penza region Ministry of the Interior department, some 1,500 police officers will protect the public peace during the unified election day.

The Penza region election committee estimates the voter turnout for the gubernatorial election at 45-50%. However, as no minimum turnout level was set beforehand, the election will be deemed valid regardless of the eventual constituent turnout.

As of 18.00 of Saturday, September 12, the electoral registers of the Penza region include a total of 1,085,392 persons.

The previous public gubernatorial election in the Penza region were held in 2002, 13 years ago, when Vasily Bochkarev won the vote and went over for the second term, leaving behind his closest competitor Victor Ilyukhin, State Duma deputy for the Communist Party.