Penza, 12 September 2015. PenzaNews. The one-day period of pre-election silence before the September 13 Penza region gubernatorial election began at midnight by Moscow time of Saturday, September 12.

The pre-election silence laws prohibit any election propaganda and media reports on any public opinion polls, forecasts and ratings that may affect the electoral opinion.

However, the laws generally allow distributing information about the election, calls for participation, explanations of legal norms and information about the voting schedule, that is usually distributed by the election committees and the media.

The election propaganda is also prohibited on election day proper.

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.

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”).

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.

The election committee preliminary report lists a total of 1,099,797 voters in the Penza region, including 409,219 in the city.

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.