Penza, 13 September 2015. PenzaNews. The State Duma deputy from the Penza region for the CPRF faction Vladimir Simagin has cast his vote during the regional gubernatorial election on Sunday, September 13. He voted at the polling station No. 87 located in the Zheleznodorozhny and Oktyabrsky area military commissariat building on Skladskaya street.

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The deputy arrived to the polling station at 10.19. He was alone – without his wife Dina Bogatyreva whom he married on August 6 – and cheerful.

It took him only a couple of minutes to receive his ballot and cast the vote.

“I hope the turnout will be good. All people will come and make their choice,” Vladimir Simagin told the journalists.

“Frankly, all of us regardless of political preferences want to make lives of our compatriots better. Some from one angle, some from another, but we all want people to have better lives. And the people will in turn decide who is the most worthy to lead the Penza citizens to the worthy lives,” he added.

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.