Voter turnout in federal electronic voting system at 20% now - Russian Digital Development Ministry

MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - Twenty percent of the total number of Russian citizens who registered to vote online have already cast their ballots in the Russian presidential election, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media said in a statement.

The online voting system is seeing a lot of traffic due to high voter activity in the Russian presidential election, and voters are advised to return to the website later if they receive such a notification, it said.

"The voting system is experiencing a lot of traffic due to high [voter] activity. Some users may receive such notifications. They are advised to return to the website later. More than 200,000 users have cast their ballots over the past hour," the statement said.

"More than 20% of all users registered on the platform have already voted through the remote electronic voting system, and citizens are actively continuing to cast their ballots online," it said.

Over 900,000 people have already cast their ballots using the federal remote electronic voting system, it said. The Kamchatka Territory was the first to do so. Voting has now started in all of Russia's time zones.

Online voting is available in 29 regions, the ministry said. Citizens intending to vote via the vybory.gov.ru platform had to submit an application on the Public Services (Gosuslugi) website in advance. Muscovites can vote via the mos.ru website.

Russia is holding its presidential election on March 15-17.