25 April 2009, 07:00
In Sochi, propaganda campaign for Mayor election is over
Yesterday, on April 24, the stage of the agitation campaign before Sochi election was over, and today is the "day of silence". From the midnight of April 25, any public agitation for candidates to the post of Mayor of this city-resort is forbidden.
The ban will last till the end of voting, when tomorrow, on April 26, at 8:00 p.m. Moscow time, all the polling stations located in the territory of the city will close up.
The election campaign in Sochi looked quiet from inside: in the streets, there are almost no posters with portraits of candidates and cross street banners with appeals and slogans. "If you drive across Sochi now, you'll hardly guess that the election is to take place here on Sunday: the event is not discussed in public transport, and the only candidate, whose external propaganda was noticed by the correspondent, was Pakhomov," the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.
The local polling stations, which will receive the voters tomorrow, are already guarded by militiamen from the local City Interior Department. At each station two militiamen will be alternately present, as the "Newsru.com" writes.
In his turn, Ilya Yashin, head of the electoral office of candidate Nemtsov, writes in his blog in LiveJournal that "observers and OMON units from neighbouring regions arrive to the city, while the administration forces voters to go and vote before time." The candidate's electoral office predicts serious falsifications on the voting day.
