Penza, 18 September 2016. PenzaNews. Russian citizens, who fulfilling their civil duty on September 18, can directly affect the future of the country, determining the direction of its further development. Such an opinion was expressed by an honorary citizen of Penza Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the city administration from 1992 to 2000.

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“The future of Russia should be wonderful. Russia should develop, get stronger. Its armed forces should grow and develop as well. And most importantly, the new convocation of the State Duma should work for the benefit of the people, for the benefit of the Russian people, for them to live better, for Russia’s homes to be light, warm and comfortable, kind and good,” he said after putting his ballot papers at polling station No. 131 in Penza house of children and youth creativity.

Alexander Kalashnikov expressed the hope that the new structure of the State Duma of the Russian Federation will do everything possible for the further development of economy and society.

“For the people to live comfortably — that's what they [the deputies] should work on, most importantly,” he added.

As PenzaNews reported earlier, on September 18, in addition to the State Duma elections, the region holds by-elections of deputies of the Penza City Council in the 17 th and 19 th single-member districts, the election of representatives of the Assembly of Deputies in Kamenka and Serdobsk areas, as well as deputy elections to the local authorities in 19 areas.

During State Duma elections each voter receives two ballots — the federal and single-mandate constituencies. In the first case one may vote for one of 14 parties registered by the CEC. In the second ballot, the voter gives preference to a particular candidate.
“Against all” box is not presented in both ballots. It was abolished in all types of elections in 2006, but then returned during municipal elections in 2014.

The elections will be considered valid with any turnout. In the Penza region it has traditionally been higher than the average in Russia. So, 13 years ago, the turnout in the region during parliamentary elections it was more than 57%, in 2007 about 70%, and in 2011 almost 65%.

According to the election committee of the Penza region, on September 18 the turnout of the first two hours of voting was 9.3%.