Russia is observing what officials are calling a day of silence before people vote for a new parliament in Sunday’s general election.

The media is banned from referring to parties, politicians, policies or opinion polls.

Meanwhile, the country is all set for Sunday’s elections with the first polling booths opening at 8:00 am, local time, in Kamchatka and Chukotka regions in Russia’s Far East.

Around 96,000 polling booths have been set up across 11 time zones in the country.

Exit poll results will only be made public after the last ballots are cast in Russia’s west.

Earlier this week, public opinion polls said President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party appears to be heading for a huge majority in Russia’s fifth State Duma.

Putin is leading the party’s election ticket for the Duma. The Kremlin’s only possible enemy is a low turnout as poll results are a foregone conclusion.

The other parties expected to reach 7 per cent threshold, are Russian Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) led by ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

The run-up to the election has also been marred by increasing allegations that the vote could be rigged.

This time, there are few international observers. Europe’s main election monitoring organisation, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR), abandoned its plans to send a big team to Russia after accusing the Russian government of imposing unacceptable restrictions and of deliberately delaying the issuing of visas.

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