Polls close in far eastern Russia

(4 Mar 2012) SHOTLIST
1. Policeman and election officials emptying ballot box
2. Person taking photograph
3. Various of ballot box being emptied
4. Various of ballot papers being sorted
5. Mid of observers
6. Ballot papers on desk
7. Various of papers being clipped
8. Ballot papers being sorted
9. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Nadezhda Pavlova, election official:
"According to preliminary data the turn out is more than 60 percent. This is much higher than the totals from three months ago."
++NIGHT SHOTS++
10. Wide exterior of polling station
11. Close of electronic sign showing time and date
STORYLINE:
Counting in Russia's presidential elections is already underway in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Current prime minister Vladimir Putin is widely expected to be returned to the presidency, but there is already talk of alleged violations that could lead to renewed protests against the regime.
Despite the perceived violations, the electorate has turned out in fair numbers to vote in the Siberian city.
Election official Nadezhda Pavlova told The Associated Press that, according to preliminary data, the turnout was more than 60 percent.
The independent elections watchdog agency Golos said it was receiving reports of so-called "carousel voting" in Moscow, in which busloads of voters are driven around to cast ballots multiple times.
Evidence of widespread vote fraud in a December parliamentary election set off the protests against Putin, who has remained Russia's paramount leader
after moving into the prime minister's office four years ago because of term limits.
They were the largest public show of anger in post-Soviet Russia and demonstrated growing frustration with corruption and political ossification under Putin.
None of the other candidates has been able to marshal a serious challenge to Putin.
A mid-February survey by the independent Levada Center polling agency found Putin getting more than 60 percent support - well above the 50 percent needed for a first-round win.
The Communist Party candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, garnered the support of about 15 percent, according to the survey, which claimed accuracy within 3.4 percentage points.
The others - nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Sergei Mironov of A Just Russia and Mikhail Prokhorov - were in single digits.

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