Polling also took place in Yaounde and Douala yesterday March 4, 2012 with 85 people expected to participate.

Over 110 million Russians, including two million expatriates around the world, yesterday March 4, 2012 went to the polls in the first round of presidential elections. In the two polling stations of Yaounde and Douala where a total of 85 voters registered, voting that began at 8 am was expected to end at 8 pm.

Talking to Cameroon Tribune just before voting at the Bastos-Yaounde Embassy polling station, the First Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Dmitry Malov, disclosed that as at 10.50 am, 11 people had already voted in Yaounde, six in Douala and 32 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea where the election also held in two polling stations. He expressed appreciation to Cameroonian authorities for their assistance in organizing the election.

Most of the voters were diplomats and Russian women who got married to Cameroonians in the Soviet days, Mr. Malov explained. Only last year, Russians in Cameroon also voted in parliamentary elections that passed off well, Mr. Malov recalled. The results of yesterday’s election were to be forwarded to Moscow at the end of the day.

"I'm expecting a good turnout, because presidential elections are an important event. I am confident that people will act responsibly," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared after voting in Moscow. His main challenger was Communist Gennady Zyuganov, who is running for a fourth time. Mr. Putin is widely expected to win yesterday’s vote after serving as Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008, but was barred by the constitution from standing for a third consecutive term. Sunday’s election held against a backdrop of popular discontent, sparked by allegations of fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of Mr. Putin's United Russia party.

Around the world, voters in 387 polling stations in 145 countries took part in the poll. Back in Russia, polling was expected to close in the last station in the easternmost town of Kaliningrad at 9 pm local time or 6 pm Cameroonian time. Five candidates - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov and the only independent, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, stood in yesterday’s election whose winner will serve a six-year term, instead of four years in the past.