Penza, 13 September 2015. PenzaNews. Distinguished Doctor of the CIS, head of the management department of the regional war veterans hospital Gennady Yeroshin has cast his vote during the regional gubernatorial election on Sunday, September 13. He voted at the polling station No. 25 located in the Penza multidisciplinary college building on Stroiteley prospekt.

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He arrived to the polling station without his wife, who he said cast her vote earlier in the morning and left for their dacha.

Gennady Yeroshin was cheerful, and managed to ask a daughter about one of his patients about the patient’s health before proceeding onwards.

It took the Distinguished Doctor of the CIS only about three minutes to receive his ballot and cast the vote.

According to Gennady Yeroshin, he came to the election ready to fight.

“There is no worry per se, only slight tremor deep inside,” the election candidate admitted, saying he compares the election to a surgical operation.

“I am a natural surgeon, after all. Since each surgery is a battle, let’s say this is a small surgical battle as well,” he explained.

Gennady Yeroshin also placed great emphasis on his opinion of the election campaign as a very concise and expert procedure that he had never seen before.

“The election campaign situation was a very peaceful, friendly one. I don’t remember it being organized at such an expert level ever before,” he 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.